Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

3.
 
Research report 
In the previous chapter, both origins and historical development of British fantasy for 
children have been sketched. Elements, forms, themes and issues but also didactic concepts 
were outlined in their respective contexts, showing important currents, trends, changes and 
innovations. As we have seen, the rich potential of the field has been growing steadily, 
enlarging its spectrum and widening its horizon.
On the temporal scale we have now reached the present. As any stocktaking of topical 
events reveals, their simultaneousness complicates their analysis and classification due to the 
lack of temporal distance. As contemporaries, authors, readers as well as critics share the 
same socio-cultural environment and can actively respond to mutual impetus, whereas 
previous publications and later generations of readers and critics are denied this possibility of 
interaction. Yet, a stocktaking despite the genre’s dynamic development leads to
the initially 
provisional nature of a concurrent study’s findings and theories, which future studies will 
have to prove and to confirm with the help of temporal distance. The same holds true not only 
for an overview of the genre but also for its criticism and interpretation, as the critics judge 
contemporary developments. With the initial landscape being the same for everyone, the 
exploration of the genre’s current developments becomes a joint venture: A litero-
geographical quest for orientation, identification, classification
1
and mapping but also of 
comparison to already established values. 
3.1
 
Situation of the contemporary research in British Children’s 
Literature 
Against this background we are going to inquire into the situation of the contemporary 
research in British children’s literature and present an overview of current views held by 
researchers and critics of the field. The current situation is characterised by a cross between 
forms and contents, tradition and innovation, past and present as well as present and future. 
As we will see later on, this hybridity is an important feature of the current state of the genre. 
In order to accommodate for the multi-layered diversity and polyphony of the current 
publications of British fantasy novels for children, both criticism and research are required to 
adjust to this phenomenon by means of combined approaches, disciplines and methods. 
1
Time and future studies will tell whether the traditional means and parameters of classification and definition 
can or should still be applied to the genre, or whether the developments necessitate a restructuring and 
adaptation to new circumstances.

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Although there are studies which inquire into single aspects, they cannot neglect the fact that, 
for a global examination, the novels’ blending of forms and styles requires an analysis and 
criticism which takes this interdisciplinariness into account. However, by consciously 
extrapolating one or more selected aspects, literary researchers and critics can analyse and 
discuss them in more detail.
There are as many aspects of study as there are aspects in British children’s fantasy 
novels. With the genre’s widening horizon their number and diversity are constantly 
increasing. As we will see in the following, the more children’s literature and literature for 
adults approach each other, the more their topics do, too. With an increasing adult interest in 
reading, analysing and criticising children’s fantasy, disciplines and theories stemming from 
adult literary criticism are introduced and applied to the genre.
2
The situation of contemporary 
research in British children’s literature, and, in our case, fantasy, tallies that of adult literature 
in so far as all currents, disciplines and theories are represented. Some approaches have been 
present since the very beginnings of children’s literature itself, for example social criticism, 
educational theories or religious aspects. Others, such as feminist, environmentalist or Marxist 
theories, reader-response theory, psychological approaches, post-/ neo-colonialism, Hunt’s 
childist criticism or comparative studies of international children’s literature have only been 
recently transferred from adult literature to the genre.
Yet, there is one aspect which, from the very start, has not ceased to occupy everyone 
involved with children’s literature, be it authors, teachers, parents, children or critics. Each 
group quests for their grail: The good book.
3
Authors attempt to write books which appeal to 
children in both form and content. At the same time, they also need to meet the educational 
demands of parents
4
and teachers as well as comply to marketing strategies. Children define 
a good book by its readability. For them, it has to be enjoyable, suspenseful and imaginative; 
i.e. a good pastime. For the parents and teachers, a good book literally has to be worth it by 
providing quality for money. Educational aspects stand in the foreground: How does the book 
positively influence the development of the child’s cognition and their social skills? How well 
does it prepare them for “reality”? Teachers are also concerned about the quality of 
2
Vice versa, in how far disciplines and literary theories of children’s literature in turn can nowadays be applied 
to adult literature is an interesting question. Unfortunately, it cannot be pursued within the scope of this study.
3
Naturally, the definition and interpretation of this term depends on the respective generation and its self-image, 
morals, values and view of the world. It therefore changes over time.
4
As long as children do not have any income of their own, in most cases the way to the bookshelf of the children 
leads via the demands, expectations and the wallet of the parents.

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67 
children’s books. For them, the pedagogical value of children’s books is the deciding factor. 
The critics quest for the good children’s book as well, focussing their attention on the many 
aspects the book as an art form can have on the one hand and on judging and interpreting it on 
the basis of one or more theories
on the other hand.
5
Among the latter are for example all 
kinds of literary criticism such as historical or comparative approaches, social, political, 
religious, ethical or gender-oriented aspects. This quest for the good book has formative 
influence on the situation of contemporary research in British children’s literature, which is 
mainly characterised by the multeity and interweaving of forms, contents and genres on the 
one hand and a corresponding multeity and an entwining of approaches and disciplines on the 
other hand.