Young Adult Literature: The Power of Books and Literacy

1998 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Joan F. Kaywell ◽  
Rebecca J. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature

»die Träume gehören zweifellos zur Wirklichkeit«

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Caroline Roeder
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Dream Narratives ◽  
Literary System

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Theodor Storms Kindermärchen Der kleine Häwelmann, von dem Autor 1849 für seinen Sohn Hans verfasst und 1850 veröffentlicht, ist in seiner moralisch-komischen Form ein exemplarisches Exponat der Kinderliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Gemäß der biedermeierlich gestimmten, belehrenden Funktion des Textes steht kindliche Allmachtsfantasie im Mittelpunkt des Geschehens. Die Haltung des ›Mehr-mehr‹ überschreitet indes die Grenzen der Moralerzählung. Entgegen der abschreckenden Funktion scheint vielmehr der kleine Häwelmann in der Verschränkung von Norm-Übertritt und Eskapismus ein ›modernes‹ Kind seiner Entstehungszeit zu sein und durchaus mit den Figuren des Struwwelpeters vergleichbar, die der Arzt und Kinderpsychiater Heinrich Hoffmann 1845 entworfen hat.   »Dreams Undoubtedly Belong to Reality«Dream Narratives About Childhood and for Children The call for ›more!‹ is the force driving the protagonist of Theodor Storm’s literary fairy tale Der kleine Häwelmann (1850) on his imaginary journey through the night. This dream narrative is a combination of an exciting exploration of transcending borders with a hint of the moral tale, and can be seen as a model for the configuration of the dream motif in children’s and young adult literature. Although the dream narrative has a prominent place there, its investigation has hitherto almost exclusively taken place within the con­text of fantasy; the didactic functions of the dream, however, and the motif of the dream journey have largely been neglected. This article looks at how post­1945 children’s dream narratives explores representations of childhood. Benno Pludra’s Lütt Matten und die weiße Muschel (1963), a children’s story from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), is analysed and situated within the context of its literary system. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) is next considered in relation to Pludra’s text in order to pro­vide a contrastive view to a key text from the Western literary system. Both texts were hugely innovative for their time and respective systems, both use Storm’s Häwelmann as an intertextual anchor, and both, as this analysis shows, reveal recognisable societal discourses about childhood and cultural policies for children.

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