Barnboken – Journal of Children's Literature Research
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Mord, blod och rosslande kämpars dödskval: Fridtjuv Bergs Trojanska kriget och Iliaden för barn
No full textMurder, Mayhem, and the Moans of Dying Men: Fridtjuv Berg’s Trojanska kriget and The Iliad for Children
Around the turn of the twentieth century, several retellings of Homer’s epic and Greek mythology were published for children in Sweden. Fridtjuv Berg’s Trojanska kriget (The Trojan War, 1901) in the canonical publication series Barnbiblioteket Saga (The Children’s Library Saga) became one of the most long-lived. This article examines the characteristics of Berg’s rewriting by an analysis of the organization of the narrative, paratextual features, and the depiction of gender. Berg’s strategies are compared with another contemporary rewriting of The Iliad, Kata Dalström’s Grekiska guda- och hjältesagor (Greek Tales of Gods and Heroes, 1893). The article shows that the two rewritings mainly depict the same events and in the same order. Trojanska kriget foregrounds the historical content of The Iliad in the paratexts and by structuring the narrative around the foundation and fall of Troy. Dalström’s paratexts stress the timelessness of the work by references to a long cultural tradition, which is reinforced by illustrations depicting artworks from different eras. Berg’s book is more richly and uniformly illustrated, and Louis Moe’s illustrations highlight the action of the tale. Furthermore, Berg and Dalström focus on different aspects when abridging the tales, which influences the depiction of gender. While both rewritings describe a patriarchal society, Berg puts greater emphasis on male relationships and heroism. The women are mainly described as passive victims of war or masculinist power structures. Dalström’s version contains a greater variety of women. The comparison makes clear that Berg’s greater interest in the historical and factual aspects of Homer’s epic may have contributed to a more conservative gender ideology. At the same time, the rapid action of Trojanska kriget together with the publication context in Barnbiblioteket Saga are probably two of the factors behind the book’s success
”Tänk om Egon tar min cykel” : Konflikten som estetisk-pedagogisk nod i Pija Lindenbaums bilderboksberättande
No full textConcentrating on Doris drar (Doris Leaves, 2015), Pudlar och pommes (Poodles and Fries, 2016), and Vitvivan och Gullsippan (Vitvivan and Gullsippan, 2021), this article explores how Pija Lindenbaum utilizes the artistic possibilities of the picturebook medium to communicate with the child reader. Following James Phelan, my investigation goes beyond a static and universal understanding of narratives to seeing them as context-determined and composed in relation to a rhetorical audience. Mike Cadden points out that this rhetorical turn is particularly striking when it comes to children’s literature, as the targeted reader by definition is a child and narratives for children often use specific strategies for more or less well-defined purposes. Taking my cue from rhetorical approaches to literature, I argue that a focus on plots and conflicts enhances our understanding of reading as ethical meaning-making. Conflicts in modern children’s literature are regularly perceived from the child’s point of view in ways that are essential for the transaction of meaning. In my terminology, the conflict constitutes an aesthetic-pedagogical node connecting the reader with the evaluative perspective of the narrative. Addressing the dynamics between text, image, and medium in Lindenbaum’s picturebooks, this article argues that plots and conflicts are pivotal for the reader’s involvement, directing interest and emotional engagement. The plot not only invites the reader to the fictional world, but it also stimulates a context-bound meaning-making involving thoughts, feelings, and values
Maria Andersson, Framtidens kvinnor: Mognad och medborgarskap i svenska flickböcker 1832–1921
No full textReview/Recensio
Anna Kérchy & Björn Sundmark (red.), Translating and Transmediating Children's Literature
No full textReview/Recensio
Översättning av kraftuttryck i de franska och svenska översättningarna av Maria Parrs Keeperen og havet
No full textThe Translation of Foul Language in the French and Swedish Translations of Maria Parr’s Keeperen og havet
The current study deals with the translation of foul language in the French and Swedish translations of Maria Parr’s Norwegian novel Keeperen og havet (Lena, the Sea, and Me, 2017). Previous research shows that children’s literature is translated differently in France and in Scandinavia. It is also well-known that parents often have an opinion on what children’s literature can contain. For this reason, we choose the two target languages in question, French and Swedish, and the specific object of study, namely foul language. Methodologically, this is a comparative case study where we compare how passages containing foul language are translated from Norwegian to French and Swedish. Parr is highly creative in her use of foul language. Our study suggests that the Swedish translator retains the coarseness of the source text, and often does so to a great extent by choosing established expressions in the target language. The French translator shows a great deal of creativity, as she uses the characteristics of the plot and the setting to find solutions that are true to the style of the source text
Humor i to nyere norske diktbildebøker: Pling i bollen og 123 for barske barn
No full textHumour in Two Contemporary Norwegian Poetry Picturebooks: Pling i bollen and 123 for barske barn
Abstract: This article examines visual and verbal humour in two contemporary Norwegian poetry picturebooks for children. The main aim is to study how different types of humour and various poetic devices are expressed through the interplay of words and images. Moreover, the article discusses in which ways the two books represent a continuation and a renewal of classic humour traditions. The theoretical framework mainly consists of intermedial theory, picturebook theory, children’s poetry studies, and studies on literary humour traditions such as nonsense, parody, and the Bakhtinian carnivalesque. The selected books are Pling i bollen: Fine og ufine barnerim (Off One’s Chump: Delicate and Indelicate Children’s Verses) from 2011 by Ingvild Rishøi and Bendik Kaltenborn and 123 for barske barn: Tull med tall (123 for Rough Children: Nonsense with Numbers) from 2020 by Anne Østgaard and Egil Nyhus. The analyses point to examples of both playful and sophisticated interactions between poems and illustrations, suggesting that the picturebook medium includes more diverse combinations of visual and verbal humour compared to traditional illustrated poetry books. In addition, the various types of humour appear to be wilder and coarser than in classic children’s poetry. 123 for barske barn combines pedagogical and aesthetic qualities by featuring nonsense and carnivalesque humour with numbers, while Pling i bollen offers an even wider range of humour by combining satire, parody, and sophisticated nonsense with more playful and carnivalesque qualities. These compounds of humour tend to transgress the classic genre of children’s verse and to include a cross-generational audience
Erik Zillén, Fabelbruk i svensk tidigmodernitet: En genrehistorisk studie
No full textReview/Recensio
Anne på svenska: Hur tidsanda och produktionsvillkor påverkat huvudpersonens karaktärsdrag i svenska översättningar och adaptioner av Anne of Green Gables
No full textAnne in Swedish. How the Spirit of the Age and Production Terms Influence the Protagonist’s Character Traits in Swedish Translations and Adaptations of Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) has received much academic interest. Drawing on related research on the novel and its Swedish editions, my article investigates how the variation in the Swedish versions influences the characterization of Anne 1909–2018. My study acknowledges the feminist view within translation studies as expressed by Sherry Simon, and uses Norman Fairclough’s linguistic model for contextualization. The primary material consists of Montgomery’s original text, the translations and adaptations by Karin Jensen, Aslög Davidson, Margareta Sjögren-Olsson, and Christina Westman as well as correspondence between the publishing houses and translators. Further, I have interviewed Westman and corresponded with her publisher. The texts are analysed regarding omissions and additions. On a micro-level, all active verbs where Anne is the grammatical subject are analysed. My results show that all editions give prominence to Anne’s academic ambition. A major finding is that the 1941 and 1962 versions increase Anne’s ambition by using more active verbs and stronger expressions. Westman’s 2018 edition, however, is a subtle revision of the first Swedish translation, with the result that Anne’s ambition is diminished again. Despite girls and women having gained more freedom over the last 100 years, the latest edition thereby interrupts the tendency to stress Anne’s ambition. This is understood as a result of clashing discursive and social norms. On the other hand, the emphasis on Anne’s ambition in the 1941 and 1962 editions comes with a cost of religious, moral, intellectual, and emotional aspects, creating a one-dimensional Anne
Mening med vrøvlet: Læsninger af børnelyrik som leg og kreativ tænkning
No full textMaking Sense of Nonsense: Readings of Children’s Poetry as Play and Creative Thinking
Abstract: Nonsense and meaning are not necessarily conflicting concepts, but can be conceived of as a hendiadys, that is, not opposites, the one or the other, but as one and the other. The idea that meaning and nonsense are related and coexist is a premise for this article, which describes different structures of meaning in the nonsense poetry of Birgitte Krogsbøll and Kamilla Wichmann’s picture book Funkelgnister: Rim, råb og remser (2015, Glittersparks: Rhymes, Roars and Rigmaroles). By linking our analysis of Funkelgnister to Johan Huizinga’s theory of play as a prerequisite for culture, we reveal how the specific structures and logics of the poems generate meaning and thereby we disclose how children’s nonsense poetry is simultaneously meaningful and nonsensical, as a creative thinking akin to culture developed through play and playfulness. We describe how meaning can be sought in three directions, suggested by Gilles Deleuze: above, below and on the surface. In the first case, we consider nonsense as a seductive acoustic phenomenon. In the second, we focus on nonsense poetry as subversive. And finally, in the third case, we show how it is an event. In all, these different aspects demonstrate how nonsense poetry functions as play and challenges our understanding of what it means to read. Following Jurij Lotman’s understanding of pictorial language as creative thinking, we show how nonsense in Funkelgnister opens up a free space by utilizing an in-between, where meaning takes on different forms as signs and sounds, and how the inherent rejection of normative rules of reading in such a venture, initiates a production of meaning as metonymic activity. We thereby highlight how nonsense generates a ground for a creative development of meaning. 
