ABSTRACT
If we ask what the subject matter of children’s and young people’s literary studies is, the answer might well be: all literary communication in which children and young people are the addressees. We will therefore reserve the term ‘children’s literary communication’—meaning literary communication to children-for this subsection of all literary communication. This will then be the fi rst category to be explained in this introductory study. As far as the concept of communication is concerned, inclusive defi nitions are provided by general communication studies (cf. Schulz 2002) and cultural semiotics (cf. Posner 2003). We will delve no further here into the question of what distinguishes literary communication from other forms of communication, such as scientifi c communication or everyday communication. Let us at this point just mention, however, that in the context of this study the word ‘literary’ is not confi ned to fi ction, but also always includes factual and informational literary communication. With this broad conception of the term ‘literary’ we are continuing a tradition that has long predominated in this fi eld: experts in children’s and young people’s literature have from the very beginning always regarded non-fi ction as falling within their purview.
