ABSTRACT

In Nederlandse Literatuur. Een geschiedenis (Dutch Literature. A History), a standard work on Dutch literary history published in 1993, a mere eight pages out of a total of almost nine hundred are dedicated to children’s literature. In this small chapter, the developments in books for children and adolescents since the 1950s are analyzed. In its conclusion, the author, Harry Bekkering, reflects on whether or not, by the early 1990s, the emancipation of children’s literature had been completed. His answer is a partial yes and a partial no. His main argument for not considering said emancipation accomplished is that children’s literature could only really be part of the national literary canon the moment it was no longer lumped together and stashed away in a separate chapter and instead was organically included in the description of literary developments and genres in general (Bekkering 1993: 750).