Devenir adulte et rester enfant? Relire les productions pour la jeunesse [Becoming an adult while staying a child? Rereading children’s literature] (review)

The German author Erich Kästner contended that only those who stay a child at heart while becoming an adult are truly human. And indeed, a large part of literature for children and young adults oscillates between these seemingly dualistic poles. This fact motivated the Centre de Recherches sur les Littératures Modernes et Contemporaines in Clermont-Ferrand/France to organise an international conference in 2006 to explore the apparent paradox of growing up while remaining a child. The volume presents the results of this conference. Thirty-six scholars analyse children’s literature from different angles, including reception theory, such as Claudie de la Génardière in Grandir avec les histoires (Growing Up with Stories) and Mugara Constantinescu’s Contes d’enfants pour adults (Children’s Tales for Adults), or close readings, such as Monique Chassagnol’s and Nathalie Prince’s contributions on Peter Pan. The corpus – ranging from Fénélon’s Télémaque, and Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Le petit prince and picture books without words to Harry Potter – is as broad as the spectrum of involved disciplines, including History, Literature, Linguistics and Translation Theory, represented by Roberta Pederzoli’s contribution. Psychoanalytic theory is called upon in Geneviève Djenatis’s critical contribution about the effects on children of stimulus satiation by media (often including scenes of violence), which, according to the author, transform children into “miniature adults” (“adultes en miniature”) and threaten to overwhelm them. The rich and thought-provoking proceedings are framed by an introduction from the editor, Isabelle Cani, and concluding remarks by the French specialist on children’s literature, Jean Perrot.