Original scientific paper

HISTORY, LITERATURE AND CHILDHOOD: ENCOUNTERS AND DEPARTURES

Marijana Hameršak orcid.org/0000-0002-8102-6784 ; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The paper presents and interprets the reception of the history of
childhood in literary studies. More specifically, it discusses the
circumstances and the principles of accepting Philippe Ariès' study
in the works on the subject of children's literature. Special attention
is given to the approval with which literary scholars dealing with
children's literature have treated Ariès' deductions and conclusions.
Possible theoretical foundations for this approval are examined on
the example of Zohar Shavit's article, which deals with the
relationship between several variants of the Little Red Riding Hood
and the historically different concepts of childhood. The paper
discusses the problems of treating the context as a stable and clearly delimited element of literary analysis, the problems of
understanding literature as an illustration of the social norms, the
problem of a cause-effect understanding of the relationship between
history and society. Finally, the paper discusses the problems of
understanding literature as an entirely produced rather than a
productive social force.

Keywords

the history of childhood; literary history; children's literature; fairy tale; Philippe Ariès; Zohar Shavit

Hrčak ID:

24607

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/24607

Publication date:

23.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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