Navigating Children’s Literature Through Controversy: Global and Transnational Perspectives (Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, 104)

This collection focuses on the specific issue of controversy as a cross-sectional aspect of contemporary childrens and YA literature, in a spectrum stretching from national experiences, to explore the impact of specific historical, economic and social environments on the rise of controversies; to inter-national exchanges in which controversies are generated specifically by the interactions between cultures; to international contexts that deal with controversies relevant on a global scale. By adopting controversy as an adjustable lens for a joined consideration of literary themes, narrative or aesthetic solutions, translation choices, publishing and marketing decisions, and discursive practices, the volume establishes a diversified collection of chapters that offers new insight into functions of childrens and YA literature in contemporary culture. Elbieta Jamrz-Stolarska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Information and Media Studies (University of Wrocaw). She has published widely on the childrens book market, design and illustration. Her major recent work is Serie literackie dla dzieci i modziey w Polsce 19451989. Produkcja wydawnicza i uksztatowanie edytorskie [Childrens and Young Adults Literature Series in Poland 1945-1989: Book Market and Design] (Warszawa, 2014). Mateusz wietlicki is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wrocaws Institute of English Studies and Director of the Center for Young Peoples Literature and Culture. His most recent book, Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Childrens Historical Fiction: The Seeds of Memory (Routledge, 2023), examines the transnational entanglements of Canada and Ukraine. He is a Fulbright, Kosciuszko, and Harvard University fellow. Agata Zarzycka is an Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies (University of Wrocaw). She has recently published A Goth Reflection: Self-Fashioning and Popular Culture (Wrocaw, 2019). Her research interests include literary studies focused on speculative fiction, gothic studies, game studies focused on video games and role-playing games, fan studies, subcultural and cultural studies. The editors are co-founders and members of The Centre for Research on Childrens and Young Adult Literature at the University of Wrocaw. ‎Contents ‎Notes on Contributors ‎Controversy and Children’s Literature: Introduction ‎Part 1. (G)local Controversies ‎Chapter 1. Controversy on the Children’s Book Market in Poland and Its Cultural and Social Background (Hojka and Jamróz-Stolarska) ‎Chapter 2. Coming Out: LGBTQ+ Topics and Polish Young Adult Literature (Woźniak) ‎Chapter 3. Being Controversial in Scandinavia: An Iconotextual Analysis of Selected Norwegian and Danish Picturebooks (Dymel-Trzebiatowska) ‎Chapter 4. Political vs. Personal: Gender-Role Formation in the Works of Ukrainian Female Children’s Writers in the 1930s (Zhygun) ‎Chapter 5. The Controversial Truth: Postmemory and the Great Terror in Yulia Yakovleva’s The Raven’s Children and Eugene Yelchin’s Breaking Stalin’s Nose (Kamińska-Maciąg) ‎Chapter 6. Controversies over the Holocaust and the Greek Civil War: Painful Memories in Greek Children’s Books (Kanatsouli) ‎Chapter 7. Trauma Representation and Aestheticization in North American Young Adult Holocaust Literature (Crockett) ‎Part 2. Transcultural Controversies ‎Chapter 8. Boys’ Friendship or Something More? Re-Examining Janusz Korczak’s King Matt the First and Its English Translations (Dybiec-Gajer) ‎Chapter 9. Annotated Editions as a Misappropriation of the Author’s Voice and of Children’s Reading: Some Polish Editions of Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault (Kaczyńska) ‎Chapter 10. Beguiling Bygones and Relapses into Barbarism: Censoring Old Children’s Literature in the Netherlands (van Bergen) ‎Chapter 11. Controversies of Authentic Adolescent Realism in Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, a Girl in Pieces (2014) and Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It (2015) (Mooney) ‎Chapter 12. “I’m Not a Teapot”: The Controversy of (Post)Humanity in Selected Novels by Neal Shusterman (Bugajska) ‎Chapter 13. “Behind the Bars, No World”: Brecht Evens’ Panther as an Ironic Response to Children’s Literature (Smyczyńska) ‎Chapter 14. Two-Dad Families in Children’s Nonfiction Picturebooks (Yannicopoulou) ‎Chapter 15. The Children’s Literature Scholar as a Two-Headed Creature (Lofting and Damrosch) (Czabanowska-Wróbel) ‎Index of Persons