Panorama Breve de la Liter-Atura Infantil en Venezuela (A brief overview of children’s literature in venezuela) by Fanuel hanán díaz. (review)

Most publications on children’s literature of the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America focus on the recent part, notably on the past thirty years during which literature for children and young adults has become a flourishing field. Contributions to the history of the first part of the 20^th century, during which children’s literature came into its own, remain rare. And the period from the Spanish reign to the declaration of independence of the colonies, which went on to become sovereign states with their own distinct political, economic, and cultural agendas, has hardly received scholarly attention at all.

Hence there is great merit in Fanuel Hanán Díaz’s choice to open his „Panorama Breve de la Literatura Infantil en Venezuela“ with the early beginnings of his country’s children’s literature and to trace its developments all the way to the present day. Giving a comprehensive survey on 165 pages is impossible, of course, but the slim volume succeeds in presenting an informative panorama of the field useful both to experts and novices looking for a first overview.

The historical survey is organized chronologically, falling into two parts, which are distinctly different in structure and perspective, and thus resulting in a somewhat heterogeneous whole. In the part devoted to contemporary children’s literature (1980s onwards), Díaz follows the lead of other authors before him in focusing on the key genres of Venezuelan children’s literature, such as poetry, songs and rhymes or fairy-tales, legends, and myths, which rely on and keep reinventing the rich oral storytelling tradition. He also gives portraits of important authors and illustrators, presents individual works as milestones of his country’s children’s literature, sheds light on the development of the publishing industry, and takes a closer look at picture-books and informational books, two types he has been working on more extensively over the last few years.

The first part of the overview, leading up to 1980, follows a more traditional literary historical approach. Overall, it reads more rigorous and convincing than the second part. Díaz draws on literary sociology and history of education to situate reading within its specific historical, political, socio-economic, and cultural context. This stronger focus on extraliterary conditions is also due to the fact that children’s literature only emerged as an independent field around the beginning of the 20^th century. So Díaz looks at the various kinds of reading materials for young readers, for example, or at who possessed literacy skills and had access to print within the feudal social structures. He explains how books served (religious) instruction, or what it meant that there were no print shops or publishers in present-day Venezuela until 1808, so that all print products had to be imported chiefly from Spain.

Given the paucity of historical sources, especially for the time of the Spanish rule, the chronicle necessarily lacks in definition and shows some gaps. Díaz tries to compensate by filling in the blanks by drawing on overall developments in literature or other domains, and succeeds in putting together a convincing account full of useful facts and insights.

For a prospective new edition of this lavishly illustrated work, it would be desirable to add captions to all images, and to replace those images, which are not directly related to the text on the page. Furthermore, an index seems indispensable. Overall, however, „Panorama Breve de la Literatura Infantil en Venezuela“ is a highly recommendable read.