Neue Impulse der Bilderbuchforschung. Wissenschaftliche Tagung der Forschungsstelle Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 13.–15. September 2006 [New impulses in picturebook research. Conference of the Research Institute for Children's Literature at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 13–15 September 2006] (review)
- Neue Impulse der Bilderbuchforschung. Wissenschaftliche Tagung der Forschungsstelle Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 13.–15. September 2006 [New impulses in picturebook research. Conference of the Research Institute for Children's Literature at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 13–15 September 2006]
These commendable conference proceedings bring together contributions by scholars of literature, art and media history as well as by specialists of neurology, developmental psychology and education, who all interrogate the picturebook from their own disciplinary perspectives.
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Susanne Koerler and Manfred Fahle draw on cognitive and neurological theories to describe the development of emotional and cognitive competence that allows children to read images and to decode their symbolic meaning. While Burkhard Fuhs asks whether picturebooks serve primarily as a medium for nostalgic adult reconstructions of childhood, media analyst Ingrid Paus-Hasebrink presents a fact-filled empirical approach to contextualise the reading of picturebooks within the larger childhood media economy. Presenting avant-garde picture books, Martin Roman Deppner looks at the influence of modern art on picturebook art and points out the unique potential of artistic picturebooks for the development of a child's identity. Stefan Neuhaus compares more and less successful adaptations of classical stories to the picturebook format, while Bettina Bannusch explores the question of gender in the picturebooks genre. Summaries of current research projects on the picturebook draw the volume to a close.
As a whole, this volume reflects the diversity of approaches to the genre. At the same time, it demonstrates that the picturebook, still something of a Cinderella of scholarly inquiry, is a complex and rewarding object of study. The contributions open up new questions and make the case for an interdisciplinary approach to the picturebook. Given that the picturebook acts as a key medium in the early psychological and social development of children, there can be no doubt that it has its rightful place in research in the human, social and natural sciences. [End Page 62]
