ABSTRACT
Praised as one of the most important innovators of Flemish children's literature and illustration of the last decade, Pieter Gaudesaboos, in his picturebooks, relies on the old as much as the new. In Boym's typology of nostalgia, Gaudesaboos practices "reflective nostalgia", which explores ways of inhabiting many places at once and imagining different time zones. Critics have argued that the image of a carefree childhood is the adult's projection of happiness and innocence on the young. Gaudesaboos has an ambiguous relationship to the image of a carefree childhood that the books of his youth depict and that in his work he mimics. He offers a Romantic transformation of the childhood and children's literature of times past, but his awareness of the illusionary nature of his memories prevents him from wanting. Briek's vulnerability is contrasted with the image of the implied child reader, who in turn is highly different from the passive reader/viewer associated with the books from Gaudesaboos's childhood.
