The ideas of multiculturalism in contemporary adolescent literature : (few cases of scandinavian literature for children)

Abstract

In the focus of concern of contemporary adolescent literature, especially problematic prose there is a suffering adolescent, experiencing his or her otherness, and searching for an identity (trying to answer “Who am I from national, religious, and sexual point of view?”). Much of such prose is constructed as if upon the mirror principle, when nearby the main character there is another person, a friend, who in many cases is rather schematic, actor-function, helping the main character to solve his or her inner (or/and external) problems. Talking about adventure literature for teenagers V. Revič has said that it is characterized by the exotic of time, place and circumstances. Obviously, these three aspects are important talking not only about adventure literature, but also about the problematic realistic prose, fantasy and other genres of adolescent prose. One of the manifestations of such exotic circumstances is friendship with (or/and love to) a foreigner – the relationship, allowing to know other’s different world, to penetrate into and perceive it, at the same time reflecting deeper on one’s own experience. (This motif, promoting a child to accept and take a liking of a nearby person of other nationality, is generally common in contemporary western, especially Scandinavian, children literature. By the way the elements of this type of books often seem a bit stretched. One Danish reader commenting on popular Danish writer’s book “The Gates of Shadows”, the writer’s choice to make a Muslim boy a fellow of a Danish girl sarcastically called to be “politically correct” and asked if in her other book the “good friend” will not be a black one /5/.[...]