Comparative Children’s Literature: What is There to Compare?

Authors

  • Maria Nikolajeva Stockholm University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2008vol18no1art1180

Keywords:

comparative literature

Abstract

Literary texts do not appear in a vacuum. Literature in Western society has been written for several thousand years, and literature written specifically for children has existed for at least two hundred years. Thousands of children’s books are published every year. Writers have usually read books by other writers or are at least aware of them. In the case of children’s writers, they are most likely to have read the major children’s classics, but they have probably also read mainstream literature. Whether conscious about this or not, writers are affected by what they read and even by what they have not read, but only heard about. Not all people today have actually read Shakespeare, but many know the plots and characters of at least the most famous plays. Literature is also disseminated through other channels, such as film, television, comics and computer games. When we read a book, we are often struck by its similarities to others we know. For instance, if we compare The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone we will observe many similarities: events, happenings, settings, characters, symbols, and messages. At the same time, we will most likely note that in many ways the two novels are different and perhaps contemplate the nature of the difference.

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Author Biography

  • Maria Nikolajeva, Stockholm University, Sweden

    Maria Nikolajeva is a Professor of comparative literature at Stockholm University. She is the author and editor of several books, among them Children’s Literature Comes of Age: Toward the New Aesthetic (1996), How Picturebooks Work, co-authored with Carole Scott (2001), From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children’s Literature (2002), The Rhetoric of Character in Children’s Literature (2002), and Aesthetic Approaches to Children’s Literature (2005). In 1993-97 she was the President of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, and she has served twice on ChLA’s international committee. She was also one of the senior editors for The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature and received the International Grimm Award in 2005.

References

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CHILDREN’S NOVELS: SELECT LIST

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Saint-Exupéry, Antoine (1962) Little Prince. Harmonsworth: Penguin.

Stark, Ulf (1999) Can You Whistle, Johanna. New York: RDR Books.

Tournier, Michel (1972) Friday and Robinson. New York: Knopf.

Trivizas, Eugene (2005) The Last Black Cat. London: Egmont.

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Published

2008-06-01

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Articles

How to Cite

“Comparative Children’s Literature: What is There to Compare?” (2008) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 18(1), pp. 30–40. doi:10.21153/pecl2008vol18no1art1180.

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