From Editors
Abstract
Research into children’s and young adult literature is multidimensional, and it is essential that each issue of the academic journal Children’s Literature: Interdisciplinary Discourse publishes materials that demonstrate this diversity. The first issue of the third volume includes scholarly articles addressing current problems in the history, theory, and contemporary functioning of children’s literature, as well as outlining new approaches to interpreting literary texts for young readers.
Lidiia Kovalets presents a study of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 as represented in the pages of the Chernivtsi children’s magazine Ukrainska lastivka, analyzing how the journal’s editorial team, operating under the occupation of Bukovyna by the Kingdom of Romania, shaped Ukrainian national identity among children by combining an educational function with information about tragic events in Soviet Ukraine.
Literary studies issues remain highly relevant, particularly those connected with the fairy-tale genre and “fairy-taleness” as an inherent feature of children’s literature. Liliia Ovdiychuk offers a new perspective on the literary fairy tale as a complex synthetic genre, proposing a contextual reading of its genesis and evolution. The researcher shows how the fairy tale transforms into a space for philosophical, social, and psychological interpretation of the world while preserving a cordocentric dimension. Khrystyna Lenko, through an analysis of the historical-adventure stories in Oleksandr Havrosh’s Museum of Adventures series, reveals the functional potential of fairy-taleness in narrative structure, emphasizing the combination of historical authenticity with fantastical elements.
For the first time, the novel Finding the Land of the Amazons by Nataliya Dovgopol becomes the focus of scholarly attention. Oksana Mitrakova and Olha Novyk explore the artistic representation of adolescent everyday life, the coming-of-age process, changes in worldview, and the impact of historical journeys on identity formation.
The section of review articles covers three key areas of children’s literature studies: the work of individual authors, regional children’s literature as part of the national literary process, and national literature through the analysis of its most important representatives. Nataliia Marchenko thoroughly interprets genre and stylistic transformations in the creative work of Tetyana Stus, tracing her evolution from educational literature and picture books to bibliotherapeutic prose.
Mykola Martyniuk offers a comprehensive overview of children’s literature of the Volyn region as a holistic artistic phenomenon, focusing on its contemporary development, genre and stylistic diversity, and the work of leading Volyn writers whose output constitutes an important part of the сontemporary Ukrainian literary canon.
Particularly valuable are studies of other national children’s literatures that remain scarcely available in Ukrainian translation. In this issue, Regina Chikoski traces the development of Brazilian children’s literature in the 20th century through an analysis of the works of Monteiro Lobato, Ana Maria Machado, and Marina Colasanti. Thanks to the translation from Portuguese by Professor Svitlana Kryvoruchko, this study becomes accessible to Ukrainian readers.
