ABSTRACT

Demonstrating the aesthetic, cultural, political and intellectual diversity of children’s literature across the globe, The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature is the first volume of its kind to focus on the undervisited regions of the world. With particular focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America, the collection raises awareness of children’s literature and related media as they exist in large regions of the world to which ‘mainstream’ European and North American scholarship pays very little attention.

Sections cover:

• Concepts and theories

• Historical contexts and national identity

• Cultural forms and children’s texts

• Traditional story and adaptation

• Picture books across the majority world

• Trends in children’s and young adult literatures.

 

Exposition of the literary, cultural and historical contexts in which children’s literature is produced, together with an exploration of intersections between these literatures and more extensively researched areas, will enhance access and understanding for a large range of international readers. The essays offer an ideal introduction for those newly approaching literature for children in specific areas, looking for new insights and interdisciplinary perspectives, or interested in directions for future scholarship.

part I|84 pages

Concepts and theories

chapter 2|9 pages

The unhu literary gaze

An African-based mode of reading Zimbabwean children’s texts

chapter 4|10 pages

Politics and ethics in Chinese texts for the young

The Confucian tradition

chapter 5|8 pages

Egyptian children’s literature

Ideology and politics

chapter 6|9 pages

“The Trees, they have long memories”

Animism and the ecocritical imagination in indigenous young adult fiction

chapter 7|9 pages

Grounds for “rights reading” practices

A view to children’s literature in Zimbabwe

chapter 8|10 pages

The construction of a modern child and a Chinese national character

Translating Alice

part II|73 pages

Historical contexts and national identity

chapter 10|10 pages

Indigenous and juvenile

When books from villages arrive at bookstores

chapter 12|9 pages

“Breaking the mirror”

Reshaping perceptions of national progress through the representation of marginalized cultural realities in Caribbean children’s stories

part III|80 pages

Cultural forms and children’s texts

chapter 19|10 pages

The crucible

Forging a hybrid identity in a multicultural world

chapter 21|9 pages

Every which way

Direction and narrative time in Kaslan Geddan and the Flash series

chapter 22|9 pages

Old/new media for Muslim children in English and Arabic

The forest, the trees and the mushrooms

chapter 23|9 pages

Brazilian children’s literature and booklet literature

Approximations and distances

part IV|62 pages

Traditional story and adaptation

chapter 25|11 pages

“M’Riddle, M’Riddle, M’Yanday, O”

Folktales of the Bahamas as signposts of heritage and as children’s literature

chapter 30|10 pages

From orality to print

Construction of Nso identity in folk tales

part V|80 pages

Picture books across the majority world

chapter 31|9 pages

The granddaughters of Scheherazade

chapter 32|9 pages

Children’s book illustration in Colombia

Notes for a history

chapter 34|9 pages

“Light like a bird, not a feather”

Science picture books from China and the USA

chapter 36|9 pages

Early childhood literature in Brazil and Mexico

Illustrated books for children aged 0 to 3

chapter 38|12 pages

Multimodal children’s books in Turkey

Illustrated books and picture books

part VI|88 pages

Trends in children’s and young adult literatures

chapter 42|10 pages

Brazilian literature for children and youth

Between the reader and the market

chapter 44|9 pages

Children’s and young adult literature in Guatemala

A mirror turned over to face the wall

chapter 45|9 pages

Breaking illusions

Contradictory representations of African childhood

chapter 46|8 pages

Facing up to reality

Recent developments in South Africa’s English literature for the young

chapter 47|11 pages

“I do yearn for change, but I am afraid as well”

An analysis of Iranian contemporary young adult novels