Themen, Stoffe und Motive in der Literatur für Kinder und Jugendliche [Themes, subjects, and motifs in literature for children and young adults] (review)

This monograph is an ambitious attempt to revise scholarly approaches to German-language literature for children and young adults. Its aim is twofold: firstly, Seibert makes the case for regarding literature for children and young adults not merely as a pedagogic subsystem of literature in general, but as an integral part of that larger poetic system. Secondly, he wants Austrian literature to act as a player in the theoretical debate, which is still dominated by a specifically German perspective.

The book is divided into four loosely connected chapters: chapter 1 traces shifting genre boundaries as well as the growing intertextuality between literature for children and young adults and literature in general beginning in the 1970s. This leads Seibert to redraw the boundaries of the canon of children’s literature in chapter 2, and to further explore the intertextual, intergenerational and highly self-reflexive nature of ‘childhood literature’ from an interdisciplinary perspective. A brief survey of the history of children’s literature from the 18th century to the present in chapter 3 nuances the traditional narrative by calling attention to the particularities of each of the four German-language literatures: German (including East and West), Swiss and particularly Austrian. The final chapter focuses exclusively on the characteristics and concerns of postmodern Austrian literature for children and young adults and demonstrates how the decompartmentalisation of this still underestimated literary genre can open up new avenues for interpretation.