MACMILLAN Children’s Literature and Intergenerational Relationships: Encounters of the Playful Kind (Critical Approaches to Children's Literature)

Children’s Literature and Intergenerational Relationships: Encounters of the Playful Kind explores ways in which children’s literature becomes the object and catalyst of play that brings younger and older generations closer to one another. Providing examples from diverse cultural and historical contexts, this collection argues that children’s texts promote intergenerational play through the use of literary devices and graphic formats and that they may prompt joint play practices in the real world. The book offers a distinctive contribution to children’s literature scholarship by shifting critical attention away from the difference and conflict between children and adults to the exploration of inter-age interdependencies as equally crucial aspects of human life, presenting a new perspective for all who research and work with children’s culture in times of global aging. From the Back Cover Children’s Literature and Intergenerational Relationships: Encounters of the Playful Kind explores ways in which children’s literature becomes the object and catalyst of play that brings younger and older generations closer to one another. Providing examples from diverse cultural and historical contexts, this collection argues that children’s texts promote intergenerational play through the use of literary devices and graphic formats and that they may prompt joint play practices in the real world. The book offers a distinctive contribution to children’s literature scholarship by shifting critical attention away from the difference and conflict between children and adults to the exploration of inter-age interdependencies as equally crucial aspects of human life, presenting a new perspective for all who research and work with children’s culture in times of global aging. About the Author Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Young People’s Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wroclaw, Poland. She published Yes to Solidarity, No to Oppression: Radical Fantasy Fiction and Its Young Readers (2016). She is a Fulbright and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow. She is the co-editor (with Irena Barbara Kalla) of Rulers of Literary Playgrounds Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children’s Literature (2020). Irena Barbara Kalla is Head of Dutch Studies and Coordinator of the Centre for Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. She has published on Dutch and Flemish literature, including Huisbeelden in de moderne Nederlandstalige poëzie (2012) and Minoes, Minnie, Minu en andere katse streken (2017, with Jan Van Coillie).