The Politics of Text and Image in Children’s Culture : Contemporary Eastern Europe and Beyond

This edited volume proposes a new perspective on how children's literature interacts with politics: its chapters focus not only on politics and literature or politics in literature, but primarily on the politics of text and image.

This edited volume proposes a new perspective on how children's literature interacts with politics: its chapters focus not only on politics and literature or politics in literature, but primarily on the politics of text and image. Following Jacques Rancière's philosophy, the collection understands The Politics of Text and Image in Children's Culture as an aesthetic (re)configuration of world perception that shapes both the individual subjectivity of young readers/viewers and their sense of belonging to different communities. The volume's focus on Eastern Europe reflects the contemporary political realities of the region. It embraces new texts from Belarusian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian, independent Russian, and post-Soviet Russophone children's and young adult (YA) literature. The collection combines this unique focus on Eastern Europe with a broad, systematic, and global perspective. It includes chapters on transnational trends in contemporary children's literature and on the productive dialogue taking place between Eastern European, Central Asian, and North American cultural spaces. This volume brings together established scholars from Austria, Croatia, Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland, and the United States. It is intended primarily for scholars of children's literature and culture, educational studies, and Eastern European and Slavic studies.