Finns det gränser för barnlitteratur?

Abstract

Åse Marie Ommundsen's PdD thesis Literary transgressions: When boundaries between children's and adult literature are blurred contributes to the explosive recent development of picturebook studies and is one of the first of its kind in Norway. Ommundsen argues that contemporary Norwegian children's literature, particularly picturebooks, has grown more complex and norm-breaking, approaching the marginal zone of “literature for all ages”. The thesis is a challenging piece of scholarship, with a broad scope of material and an interesting eclectic theoretical platform. It shows that with the current level of sophistication of children's books it is no longer fruitful to distinguish between children's and adult literature on the grounds of complexity, but only through their implied audience. Although some theoretical and methodological stances of the thesis can be questioned, it is in the first place valuable through generating considerable new knowledge and making connections between the previously unrelated facts.

Det är en intressant paradox inom dagens barnlitteraturforskning att medan vi än så länge inte har någon tillfredsställande och etablerad barnlitteraturteori, i paritet mot till exempel feministisk litteraturteori, kan man nog hävda att bilderboksteorin har växt fram tydligt och starkt. Alla forskare, åtminstone i västvärlden, är med små avvikelser överens om vad en bilderbok är, hur den skapar sin mening, vad den avspeglar, hur den tilltalar sin publik och hur vi som forskare kan förhålla oss till detta.

(Published: 10 March 2011)

Citation: Nordic Journal of ChildLit Aesthetics, 2, 2011 DOI: 10.3402/blft.v2i0.6359