Lying and deceiving are prominent topics in ethical narration. This has to do with an often absolutist stance against lying that shapes a large part of philosophical, religious, and political ...discourses. At the same time, lying and deceiving are topics in the field of moral education in which moral values such as honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness are propagated. Bringing these issues together, this article demonstrates how reflection about honesty and autonomy is narrated in Mats Wahl’s young adult novel
I ballong över Stilla havet
(
In a Balloon over the Pacific Ocean
). This novel shows that, while lying and deceiving undermine trust and can lead to harmful results, there are ways to fight against the moral destruction. This fight involves not only prosocial (versus mendacious) lying but also acknowledging individual motives for the lying behavior of others. Thus, while hating adults’ lies and deceptive actions as well as learning to lie himself, the male protagonist matures and takes on responsibility for his actions. We contend that this protagonist may constitute a moral exemplar that invites moral learning.
This article offers a comparative analysis of the aesthetic functions of photos vs. drawings in baby books. Baby books are understood as books for children between 0 and 3 years of age. Since the ...development of food intake and eating behavior is very important at this age, appropriate pictures of dining scenes can be found in many baby books. This article compares picturebooks for babies that show dining scenes, with two photo books,
Trine kan…
(1955) and
Se hvad vi kan!
(1964), and two baby books with drawings,
The Picturebook for BABY
(1950) and
I See
(1985). The null hypothesis is that photos tend more towards documentary, authentic, and objective representation, while drawings emphasize a stereotypical, expressive, and subjective perspective. Important intermittent factors are the concept of portraiture, expressed cuteness, and the position on a scale from avant-garde to kitsch. The analysis of the images and the accompanying texts (including the peritexts) shows that the representation of babies is subject to historical changes, which is related to different constructions of what it means to be a baby. In particular, the orientation towards parental or pedagogical ideals influences the respective representations.
The first comprehensive study that investigates the representation of maps in children's books as well as the impact of mapping on the depiction of landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes in children's ...literature.
This chapter focuses on three German picturebook versions of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm which were published in the 21st century. A short introduction provides an overview on the reception and ...illustration of the Grimms’ fairytales in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. Against this background, this contribution demonstrates that the selected picturebooks use different artistic techniques and styles in order to carve out the hidden potential of the original fairytale versions, thus adding new levels of meaning. Sybille Schenker’s Rotkäppchen (2014) uses the silhouette technique to point to the issues of disguise and deception, while Susanne Janssen’s Hänsel und Gretel (2007) applies collages of photos and acrylic painting to stress the difference between reality and imagination. Finally, Jonas Lauströer’s colored pencil drawings in Von dem Fischer und seiner Frau (2013) highlight an ecological perspective, as they call attention to environmental pollution caused by human greed and carelessness.
This article focuses on three East German descriptive picturebooks from the 1950s that explain the production of bread, milk, and fish. These production stories not only convey knowledge by means of ...the juxtaposition of text and images but also emphasize the achievements of the five-year plan with respect to the provision of food for the citizens of the German Democratic Republic. This combination of information and propagandistic messages served to encourage the child readers' identification with the agenda of the socialist state. Hence, the presumptive role of the child reader as naive consumer merges with the idea of the politically engaged socialist child.
Children's Literature and the Avant-Garde Druker, Elina; Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina
Children's literature, culture, and cognition,
2015, 2015-07-29, Letnik:
5
eBook, Book
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This chapter addresses what an avant-garde for children might look like, and what it might do. It is called "Surrealism for Children: Paradoxes and Possibilities" because the very notion of an ...avant-garde for children strikes the author as both paradoxical and not, and as both possible and impossible. In making this claim, the author argues with - and revises - his own analysis in The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks (2002), which took for granted that an avant-garde for children was both possible and critically viable. What he once accepted as a certainty, he now thinks of as an intriguing question. The answer resides among the three main (and overlapping) areas around which the paradoxes and possibilities of a Surrealist children's literature circulate: knowledge, experience, and audience.
In postwar Germany, inner-German borders were much disputed. While Germans widely deplored the division of their country and capital city, strong political forces in the East and the West struggled ...for their spheres of influence. Hence, moving from the East to the West or from the West to the East is the subject of many narratives. Typically, a conflict arises between personal motives (to visit relatives, to live with a beloved partner) and ideological persuasions (the belief in socialism or liberal democracy). This article discusses six young adult novels published in East and West Germany in the period from 1958 to 2004 by focusing on economic and ideological attractions as well as the depiction of the German division as a political and social disaster.
Picturebooks as Objects Kümmerling-Meibauer , Bettina; Meibauer, Jörg
Libri et liberi,
01/2019, Letnik:
8, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Based on recent studies on materiality, picturebook research, and cognitive studies, this paper investigates how children may perceive picturebooks as objects and their material properties. In this ...regard, we emphasise three dimensions of picturebooks as objects and relate them to developmental stages. The first dimension concerns the materials the picturebooks are composed of, such as paper, cardboard, wood, plastics, and cloth. The second dimension refers to the type of book, e.g. hardbacks, sets of cardboard sheets, fanfold books, pop-up books, and even hybrid objects such as books which are toys at the same time. Finally, this study focuses on the types of actions that are associated with picturebooks as objects, such as biting, building, piling up, setting up, painting, collecting, and arranging. In sum, we argue that an examination of the cognitive perspective is fundamental for the investigation of the social and cultural aspects of the materiality of picturebooks.
This paper focuses on German poetry for children published during the interwar period and written by left-wing authors such as Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Friedrich, and Edwin Hoernle. Their poems ...propagated socialist and communist ideals, in line with antifascist and anti-imperialist views that call for class struggle as well as fighting against fascist ideology. Moreover, many poems supported pacifistic ideas which turned against the glorification of war. In this regard, Bertolt Brecht played a significant role. His poems “Die drei Soldaten: Ein Kinderbuch” (The three soldiers: A children’s book), with illustrations by George Grosz, and “Kinderkreuzzug 1939” (Children’s crusade 1939) present prime examples of radical publishing and aesthetics in the interwar period, since they express a sharp critique of the destructive power of war and its effect on afterwar society.
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