Troping the Timeless: The Child, Nostalgia and Canadian Coming-of-Age fiction

Katherine Bell (1a)

There occurs throughout British literature a fascination with the solitary child figure. This fascination is manifest in Wordsworth’s Lucy poems and becomes further popularized in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, and Charles Dickens’ novels, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. The aim of these novels is to find the child characters a happy home and to, in turn, ‘legitimize’ their lives. My paper will examine the re-telling of these Victorian ‘rescue-fantasies’ in selected Canadian Bildungsroman novels. Juxtaposed against our progress-driven neighbors south of the border, Canada is often touted as a natural wonder and in the mind’s eye of many contemporary writers, it remains an apt backdrop to deploy the solitary Romantic child. The Romantic image of childhood surfaces most poignantly in our most famous Canadian bildungsroman, Anne of Green Gables. Lucy Maude Montgomery has left a legacy in our children’s literature and has inspired the writing of Jean Little’s award-winning novel, Orphan at my Door, and Marthe Jocelyn’s best selling novel, Mable Riley. What accounts for the enduring and immense popularity of the solitary child figure in Canadian fiction? Why are the solitary figures in our coming-of-age fiction still born at the turn of the century? Drawing on post-structural theory, my paper analyzes the discursive production of the child figure in Canadian coming of age narratives in order to consider how the narrative strategies we employ to define childhood experience are shaped by our nostalgia. It also considers how the proliferation of such representations strengthens our nostalgia further still.

(Neo)conservative technologies of gender and the return of the innocent child.

Lilijana Burcar (1a)

This paper examines the way in which at the turn of the 21st century the romantic trope of innocent child has been reinstituted through the backdoor of major award-winning British children’s literature. It argues that this process is informed by the re-inscription and naturalization of hierarchically framed and binary rigid genderisms and is therefore, directly or indirectly, heavily underlined by (neo)conservative agendas. While the revival of the discourse of innocence seemingly posits the child to be universally the same and gender-neutral, a closer textual analysis of the Harry Potter texts and Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials reveals a gender inflected patterning and stratification of childhood innocence. This paper examines the staging of childhood innocence and accompanying technologies of gender in Pullman’s highly acclaimed trilogy His Dark Materials.

Holes in Time: The Transgenerational legacy of the Psyche.

Polymnia Lakiotaki (1a)

In Louis Sachar’s Holes the central characters are mysteriously linked by an old story of love, grief and revenge, which is bound to change the course of their lives. Stanley’s family appears to be doomed to failure and disaster due to Madame Zeroni’s curse, since his “dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” failed to keep a promise to her. Stanley, an innocent and good-natured child, is punished for his ancestor’s irresponsibility with bad luck and ends up digging holes at Camp Green Lake, where he will meet two more characters involved in the same story. In this paper I intend to explore, from a psychoanalytic point of view, the notion of the family history as a strong determinant of an individual’s present and future, and the alleged inheritance of specific family characteristics, such as Stanley’s “bad luck”, from one generation to the other in the same bloodline. The question of whether children are punished for the sin of their fathers, and how this is portrayed in children’s literature, will be central in my discussion of Louis Sachar’s novel. Moreover, the reconciliation with the past as it is presented in the novel, and the evolution of the family and its members through their connection to the past as portrayed in Holes, will also be examined with the help of psychoanalytic theory.

Rewriting Foreign Classics of Children’s Literature in Taiwan: The Case of Oscar Wilde.

Wan-Chi Lee (1b)

In the short history of Taiwan’s children’s literature, translation has been very important in terms of introducing classic texts of foreign children’s literature to children; however, the nature of the translation was often unclear. There was not a distinct borderline that identified “retellings,” “adaptations,” “rewritings,” and “translations” so the former three were often understood to be forms of (free) translation. The differences were well understood by academies or critics, but before the 1990s translators, rewriters, and publishers were often quite “creative” in their approach to translation. In this paper I will discuss Chinese versions of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales to demonstrate the need and purpose of rewritten versions and their status as “translations.”  By examining the ways writers/translators add, delete, or change passages, considering the relationship between translator, narrator and addressee, and exploring the representation of childhood in texts, much can be learned about the nature and status of children’s literature in Taiwan.  I will also argue that such scrutiny reveals a coherent discourse within translating for children in Taiwan in which the educational function of children’s literature is always emphasized and gains more importance over aesthetic and literary values. I will focus on Wilde’s fairy tales published in The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), especially “The Happy Prince” and “The Selfish Giant.” A range of Chinese translations published in Taiwan after 1949 will also be referred to in the discussion.

Greek Children’s Holocaust Diaries: matters of translation and response

Krystallia Makatou (1b)

The little interest in the international Jewish studies as well as the little local interest for ordinary writings about Greek children’s Holocaust diaries demand a preliminary approach of the genre and practice. The already published ‘equivalents of Anne Frank’ are few and, until now, have been only Greek children’s diaries translated in another language. In my paper, I will present the original printed diaries; I will talk about their editorial origin; I will read and comment together on the texts and their foreign translations and I will discuss their perception, when elaborated, by the audience.

Translated children’s texts repackaged for the former East German market

Gaby Thomson-Wohlgemuth (1b)

The German Democratic Republic, totalitarian society and member of the former Eastern Bloc, attributed educative powers to all literature, particularly so to children’s literature, as it formed the perceptions of future citizens. It is for this reason that children’s literature came to the forefront with a great deal of status attached to it. As a direct consequence of this, however, there was rigid control exercised by a censoring authority. English-language literature, as the literature of the class enemy, was severely monitored. This led not only to self-censorship by publishers by way of selecting texts that were deemed suitable, it also resulted in strategies of ensuring that texts – once selected – obtained a print permit. One such strategy was to re-interpret the Western text in alignment with socialist paradigms using reference points from Marxist-Leninist doctrine. This made sure that censors could recognise socialist characteristics in the text and were inclined to acknowledge it as part of the native canon.

This process of adapting literature to those criteria looked for in the receiving culture was termed “rewriting” by Translation Studies scholar Lefevere (1982). Drawing on Lefevere’s concept, this paper explores the strategies of the East German children’s book publishers in their quest to appropriate English books to the East German market and, thus, making them appear ‘suitable’. Secondly, it illustrates the importance of ‘correct’ argumentation tactics with the help of Dr Dolittle which, in 1966, failed to obtain a print permit due to shortcomings in supportive argumentation, but which, in 1980, made it to the book shelves by way of astute argumentation on the side of the respective publisher.

The Idealization of Republican Middle-Class Children in 1930s and 1940s Turkey : Readers of "Poor Children" Narratives in Children's Periodicals

Özge Ertem (1c)

This paper aims to contribute to highlighting some mainstream perceptions of the Turkish nation-state about its children from the 1930s till the middle of the 1940s in the light of themes from children’s periodicals. Analyzing the most encountered themes and metaphors of the Republican establishment through materials directly calling out to children, paves the way to distinguishing the specific meanings and burdens attributed directly to children in the specific political context of nation-state formation with their own dilemmas. I aim to illuminate significant images and values that were trying to be instilled into children’s minds regarding both the political discourse dimension about public issues and the private dimension of their daily lives at home, which results in distinguishing a hidden duality between middle-class children and “poor” children in the periodicals. This study tries to shed light on how the essentialized, culturalist definitions and metaphors of the newly established nation-state and the Republic in the 1930s Turkey in the periodicals targeted the imagination of the ideal, virtuous middle-class child of a truly Republican nuclear family and tried to establish a dialogue with it., while viewing “poor” children as mostly objects of pity, sometimes object of exclusion, were narrated, portrayed and visualized in the children’s periodicals.of the time.  In this respect, the envisioned duality between the middle-class identity and “poor” identity of children  is not taken for granted but is constructed in the light of the images and metaphors from Turkish periodicals. 

Street Arabs, squatters, predators: Images of the urban child in The Borribles-trilogy and non-fictional texts on childhood in the seventies and eighties

Ulf Schöne (1c)

In the modern city, the child “is caught in a cage in which there is not even the illusion of freedom of action to change his situation, except of course in activities outside the law”, according to the architect and anarchist Colin Ward in his sympathetic 1978 analysis of 'The Child in the City'. Fittingly, Neil Postman lamented the rise of juvenile crime six years later, attributing it to 'The Disappearance of Childhood'. In his view, television was the malefactor, as it lured the child out of its garden of innocence, thus turning it into the “adult-child”.  Michael de Larrabeiti’s The Borribles-trilogy can be seen to represent these two views of childhood. The novels’ protagonists unhesitatingly break the law in numerous ways to be able to live on their own terms, and the narrator makes clear that they are children in their physical features only. But in contrast to the texts of Ward and Postman, a commiserative or even alarmist tone is missing. Instead the Borribles are celebrated in their defiance of the restrictions that urbanity and its social organisation impose on them. The paper confronts the images of the Western urban child in non-fictional texts of the seventies and eighties with the imagery found in The Borribles, and so tries to highlight the ideological implications of urban childhood in these texts that form a discourse ranging from a dystopia of waywardness to a utopia of child empowerment.

Peopling the Past: A comparison of two historical novels about Anglo-Saxon Britain; The Wind Eye and Wolf Girl

Chris Clark (1c)

Fantasy appears to dominate the reading interests of children in the early twenty-first century while concurrently historical fiction writing has less impact. However, the presence of a fantasy element (Todorov, 1970) can play an important part in some historical fiction writing; for instance, when transference between primary and secondary chronotopes (Bakhtin,1981, Nikolajeva,1988) provides the fantasy element in time-slip narratives. Therefore, for the purpose of this paper, historical time-fantasy will be considered as part of the genre of historical fiction.As part of a new research project exploring children’s historical fiction and how the genre has evolved over the past sixty years, this paper will consider the work of two writers, writing about the same historical period. It will consider the writers’ ideological stances and the implications of these on readers. My focus texts were written thirty years apart: Robert Westall’s The Wind Eye (1976) and Theresa Tomlinson’s Wolf Girl (2006) are set in Anglo-Saxon Britain; a time when pagan belief existed alongside those of the early Christian church and when religion and religious beliefs were pervasive in the lives of people. This paper will set out to demonstrate how the representation of religious beliefs in the novels draw on their writers’ cultural and political beliefs and those of the times in which they are writing. Focussing on this one strand in the texts will also allow me to begin to examine changes in the historical fiction genre that have occurred over the last sixty years. 

The Representation of the White Witch in C. S. Lewis’s World of Narnia

Wing Bo Tso (1d)

Recent studies have shown that under the influence of feminist theory, today one of the most popular areas of academic children’s literature criticism is “the rereading of texts for previously unrevealed interpretations” (Paul, 2004: 142). By ‘rereading’, academic feminist children’s literature critics look at the ways ideological implications are played out in the text. Rigid male / female gender distinction, sex-role stereotyping and sexism that adults try to ‘translate’ in children’s books are questioned. In the same light, this paper looks into the representation of female characters, in particular the White Witch in C.S. Lewis's The Magical Nephew (1955) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) from The Chronicles of Narnia (1950 – 1956). Under the influence of the Christian thinking of the time, Narnia is a world polarized into a bigoted binary division of good versus evil, light versus darkness, life versus death, creation versus destruction, salvation versus damnation, warmth versus coldness, and vitality versus sterility. While the positive force is represented by the masculine Aslan, a divine, god-like figure that sacrifices himself to bring hope and salvation to the world, the negative, evil force takes the form of a ferocious, dangerous witch, Jadis. By focusing on the character of Jadis the White Witch, this study will illustrate how the female is portrayed as the abject other that possesses multiple divided, disintegrating selves. Similar to Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray and werewolves, Jadis, a multiple complex of a macho-woman, a human-like nonhuman creature and a living dead, is the “in-between, the ambiguous, the composite” (Kristeva, 1982: 4) creature that disturbs identity, system, and order. It blurs the line of demarcation between life and death, human and beast, masculine and feminine. The female is ‘translated’ as the abject horror that reaffirms the norm.

Translating Adult Codes of Femininity into 'Chick Lit' for Younger Readers: Using Humour as a Tool of Gender Construction and Deconstruction.

Julie Cross (1d)

The title of my paper is deliberately ambiguous.  'Using humour' refers both to the authors' use of differing  forms of humour within 'tween' and 'teen' chick lit (popular literature for pre-adolescent/ teenage girls) which help 'construct' ideas of femininity, and to my use of humour criticism as an ideological and narrative tool to 'deconstruct' these notions. Through humour criticism, I reveal how these forms of humour are structured, how they function ,and how they are related to the mediation of adult codes of femininity, including the paradoxes inherent in contemporary post-feminist beliefs. I begin by examining the adult feminine codes that are translated into both 'tween' and 'teen' chick lit, through the use of a first-person, 'madcap' narrator; the importance of relationships; the continuation of didactic intent and the promotion of empathy (with its implications for a reduction in implied reader subject positions). Close attention is then paid to the 'chick lit' humour staples (slapstick, dramatic irony and the unreliable narrator) to demonstrate how the differences in usage and the changing butts of the humour throughout texts  for the different age groups, reflect the level of implied reader identification and the ready acceptance of popular ideas about female self-deprecating humour. I then highlight the seemingly paradoxical 'confused' gender coding in 'teen' chick lit, which more closely follows the patterns of adult texts, including the prevalence of the 'knowing narrator', more typically associated with male fictional protagonists, as well as scatalogical (toilet) humour. This 'mix' in texts for older readers reflects societal ambiguity about contemporary femininity. This can be viewed positively, allowing for a plurality of femininities, and it is only through the use of humour criticism that these paradoxes become apparent, thus revealing the efficacy of this new approach.

Fairy Tales and the ‘Feminine Ideal’ in 19th century Victorian Periodicals for adolescent girls.

Stacey Polemikou (1d)

For many centuries and across many different cultures fairy tales have captivated young girls’ imaginations by perpetuating romantic visions of ideal femininity. Capitalizing on romance and marriage many fairy tales emphasize the desired feminine virtues which social, cultural, and national ideals aim to promote. As a potent cultural medium fairy tales function to reinforce girlhood roles and behaviours as prescribed by social and cultural ideologies while at the same time they serve to obliterate deviant or non-conforming behaviours. Many fairy tales foster the ‘ideal of girlhood’ by rewarding virtues such as  passivity, submission, dependency, and self-sacrifice in young girls, thus promoting the ‘ideal of girlhood’.

With the publication of girls’ periodicals in the late 19th century a new site for adolescent girls’ expressions of their fantasies was created. As a medium specifically catering to young girls and addressing their particular fantasies and real interests girls’ periodicals (The Girl’s Realm, The Girl’s Own, etc.) found a ready and eager audience. The themes within the various texts- fiction and non-fiction-reflect the illusions, the fantasies, the hopes and dreams as well as the disillusionment felt by girls during that transitional stage now called ‘adolescence’. These are representative of real-life conflicts and contradictions that girls face as they progress towards maturity. My paper examines the representation of fairy tale elements (such as patterns of enchantment, dreaming, romantic visions of marital bliss, etc.) in the periodical The Girl’s Own Paper demonstrating how these fairy tale elements served to reinforce 19th century cultural and social views of girls and their femininity.

Science Fiction – Renaissance of a Genre

Bartholomäus Figatowski (2a)

Several scientists and critics in Germany and Austria said in the past ten years, that science fiction literature for children comes to its limitations among others because of its negative and dark visions of the future, the exaggerated didactic impetus and the lack of themes. But Science Fiction Literature for children and young people still holds ground and attracts new readers incorporating various trends in contemporary (fantasy) literature for children. My paper elaborates on this basic premise, posing several questions such as: Why does Science Fiction attract children and young people (it is not just the fact, that Science Fiction is a popular cross-media-product: books, movies, computer games etc.)? What are the dominant themes of Science-Fiction-novels in the last ten years? Where are the intersections to the Science Fiction Literature for adults and what is the originality of novels for children and young people? In order to answer to these questions I would revert to my dissertation thesis about the "images of childhood in children’s science fiction literature after 1945 in Germany". My general assumption is, that references to the society and to the world in general can be communicated by using "estrangement effects" (Darko Suvin 1979) – i.e. fantastic motives and themes associated with science and technology. In particular, Science Fiction for children seems to be able to explore the impact of technical inventions like media and communication technologies, gene technology but also "social engineering" on modern childhood. To highlight my arguments I will discuss novels by authors from Germany, USA , Australia and Great Britain like: Andreas Eschbach (Perfect Copy), Charlotte Kerner (Blueprint – Blaupause), Margaret Peterson Haddix (Shadow Children-Series), Marilyn Kaye (Replica-Series), Eoin Colfer (Artemis-Fowl-Series).

Lost in the Folds of Time: Translating an irrational journey through time into rational answers.

Debbie Benson (2a)

The concept of time in fiction is often complicated. This paper will discuss the ways in which writers such as Robert Westall, Penelope Lively and William Mayne, through their portal and intrusive fantasies, use the time slip to facilitate the acquisition of skills in the protagonist and developing child, including an understanding of a cultural/scientific concept of time, the ability to frame one's existence against the background of previous generations and, through the physical and emotional journey in the time slip, to nurture a sense of personal development and growth. For the protagonists, finding rational, if only fictional explanations for the time slips, symbolises the maturation process of the child, through learning about history, past cultures, past lives and human temporality.  These writers succeed in providing a locus within which the protagonists can seek a balance between rational and irrational explanations of time, the time slip and parallel lives, all of which open up the debate of the dichotomy between the past, present and future and of cultural and sociological human temporality. This paper will claim that children’s time slip fiction is not merely a sub genre of fantasy, but has strong links to that of contemporary realism and that it must act as an authentic medium through which to introduce children to the concepts of chronological, calendar and subjective time. It will conclude with reasons why the time slip should make the search for the rational in the irrational more possible than other genres.

The Fashion for Fantasy in Contemporary Children’s Literature

Cedric Cullingford (2a)

Children’s literature, perhaps more than any other, reflects the time in which it is written. Whilst certain classics appear timeless in retrospect, we detect how they, too, are embedded in contemporary social attitudes. The popular fiction of our time has obvious contrasts to the books written during the 1930s or 1950s.  One of these clear tendencies in writing for children (which overlaps with adult literature) is the emphasis on fantasy, particularly science fiction, and on supernatural powers, in contrast with the daily realities of life. This magical unrealism, with alternative worlds, is typified by Rowling and Pullman. The paper will analyse some examples of previous literature, for example Herbert Strang, Percy Westerman and Enid Blyton, and analyse the Harry Potter phenomenon and what it signifies.  Such literature will be explored both for what is reveals about the time in which it is embedded and for the influence it might carry.

What is in Books? To be or not to be a part of it?

Nilay Yilmaz (2b)

No literature is neutral, but children literature is more concerned with shaping its readers’ attitudes than most. Books may have bias by bringing their own perspectives into the social environments in which children grow up. In many stories children are exposed to a single perspective or single group experience through the characters and the manners reinforced and encouraged, rather than be allowed to develop their own ideas without building intolerance about differences. Many books may serve to preserve the status quo and shape a child’s perspective about what is “typical” or “acceptable”. Because the basic concern of the political and legal systems is to preserve the status quo, “it is necessary to divide the people in order to preserve the status quo and the oppressors call themselves builders although they attempt to preserve an unjust order to buy ‘peace’ only for themselves. They want to save their riches, their power, their way of life”. “Manipulation becomes a fundamental instrument for the preservation of domination”. The norms and the values upon which the ideal of a safe, happy and protected childhood are built culturally and historically are bound to the social preoccupations and priorities of the power-holders, the oppressors. As representatives of the future and the subjects of political and cultural policies, children stand at the crossroads of divergent cultural projects. As a result, children are generally guided to develop a certain way of thinking depending on manipulations for the preservation of domination. This study will cover common policies and ideologies presented to children via books (mainly from Turkish Children’s Literature).

The long distance runners: illustrated adaptations of Greek classic literary works for young readers

Anastasia Economidou (2b)

Much contemporary Greek literature for children consists of adaptations of classic literary works: texts from Homer to Aesop, to Aristophanes, to Byzantine folk literature, up to 19th century novelists, get 'translated' into modern Greek and, when their adaptations are for a very young audience, get illustrated. This paper concentrates on selected illustrated books for children, which are the outcome of such double adaptation: linguistic and pictorial. With the hypothesis that any adaptation of a classic literary work is a new work, I will address what happens when a text originally produced within the "system of adult literature" gets transferred to the "system of children's literature"? I will seek to examine the extent to which the ideologies inscribed in the original text get changed so as to fit both the contemporary ideologies at the time of its adaptation and the ideologies that are, each time, deemed 'appropriate' for child readers. My approach will rely heavily on theories of intertextuality, helping to answer the second basic question concerning the kind of adaptations being focused on; namely, the question of illustration. Starting from the position that the pictures of a book themselves form a metanarrative serving to construct specific ideological positions, and on the basis that the interrelationships of pictures and words are fundamental to the construction of the meanings of an illustrated book, I will seek to show the role of illustrations in the process of adapting a classic text for children and, more specifically, in the construction of the ideologies that get inscribed in the secondary text.

The Image of the "Other" in bilingual (Hebrew and Arabic) textbooks.

Lea Baratz & Sara Zamir (2b)

Children Literature is full of texts that reveal the image of the "other". My paper will present children textbooks which have been simultaneously written in Hebrew and Arabic and discuss the differences between the denotations imposed by mutual translations. Since Hebrew and Arabic are Israel's official languages and since their writing has been supported by foundation sustaining co-existence between Arab and Jews, one must regard those textbooks as ideological manifest. The very fact that the heroes of those textbooks are Arab children (belonging to Israel's minority) brings about the following questions: Can the Hebrew texts convey the same content? Do the Hebrew words chosen to describe the Arabic culture imply the very associations and connotations imposed by the Arab authentic words? What is the total image of the "other" (Arab child) drawn from either texts? Have the writers used any "word laundry" in both versions? The paper would discuss the answers to those questions based upon Scholes' three principals: "Inside the text", "About the text" and " Against the text"; Scholes' principals enable the reader to identify cultural codes, using the constructs of the literary work.

Translating Dialects in Children's Literature
Brett Jocelyn Epstein (2c)

What role does dialect have to play in children’s literature and how is dialect translated in children’s books? Authors write in dialect when a particular setting or a style of language is essential to the story and/or to the portrayal of the characters. Writers of children’s books typically must be more selective when deciding to use dialect, as children who are not experienced readers, or who have not been exposed to a variety of dialects yet, may have trouble understanding the language if it is not ‘standard.’In general, translators – whether of fiction for adults or that for children – have several broad choices when it comes to dialect. They can ignore any words in dialect and simply standardize the language. They can pick a dialect in the target language that geographically, socio-economically, or culturally is a relatively close match to the dialect in the source language, and thus creates a similar feeling in the translated text. Translators can also decide to show how a certain character does not use what is considered to be the standard, accepted language through grammatical and orthographic ‘mistakes.’ Inevitably, none of these solutions is a perfect one that works for all books, but what is especially interesting to know is whether translators of children’s fiction tend to prefer one strategy over the others. This paper will look at examples of children’s books in English and how the dialect in them is translated, or not, to Swedish.

Translating poetry for children: the ultimate challenge

Jan Van Coillie (2c)

‘The conflict between form and meaning’, what Eugene Nida called a constant pressure for the translator, especially affects the translator of poetry. In poetry, form and content are intricately interwoven, causing many experts to declare translating poetry impossible. It is certainly a special challenge, requiring considerable creativity. Whoever translates poetry for children faces extra challenges. First, he or she has to assume the childlike point of view of the poet. Moreover, in most collections of poems, the translator has to reckon with the interaction between texts and illustrations and, often, with limited lexical or syntactic choices. My presentation starts with a focus on the challenges of translating poetry, with special emphasis on poetry for children, illustrated with examples from personal experiences as a translator and from such different authors as Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl, Christian Morgenstern or Jacques Prévert. I also briefly look at different manifestations of poetry for children in poetry books, diaries, fairy tales and fantasy stories like Harry Potter. In the second part, I concentrate on the comparative analysis of two Dutch translations of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back from Dr. Seuss. I discuss the different strategies the translators follow in order to solve the conflict between form and meaning, paying special attention to the interaction with illustrations, to the young readers and to the cultural markers in the text. I also situate both translations in their historical context (1975 and 2005). Finally, I try to define the position of translated poetry in the literary polysystem of the target culture and conclude by questioning why so little poetry for children is translated and whether English is dominating this field.

Young Readers' 'Translations' of Frightening Fiction

Frances Jane P. Abao (2c)

Several studies on Gothic or horror fiction reveal how these texts usually reflect the actual fears and anxieties of the societies in which they are produced.  Frightening fiction written for a younger audience is also assumed to reflect these young readers’ fears.  However, what the authors and publishers of these texts define as ‘frightening’ may not always converge with their young readers’ own definitions. The first part of my paper will examine how studies by Marina Warner, Kimberley Reynolds, Charles Sarland, et al define and analyze popular texts of frightening fiction written for young readers. The second part will look at the results of two small group interviews with 12- to 14-year-old English pupils. Their responses reveal how some of them have redefined or ‘translated’ the concept of frightening fiction to include texts that are not usually associated with this type of fiction, and to even exclude certain texts that are often classified as ‘horror fiction’ by authors and publishers.

Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Jason DeSain (2d)

This text has been described as a modern fairy tale, a celebration of the “triumph of storytelling and imagination over raw power and dogmatism” (Aji 103).  The fairy tale structure, however, both masks and reveals Rushdie’s larger discussion concerning cultural and doctrinal Islam. Through his parallels to the Qu’ran and the hostile political situation between the talkative Guppees and the silence-worshiping Chupwalas, Rushdie implies an Islam that has accepted, possibly even encouraged, the rise of misguided fundamentalism by its failure to maintain a diverse heritage. In telling this tale, Rushdie interprets several key elements of the Qur’an for a Western audience while simultaneously offering his own “translation” of the state of Islam around the time of Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against him. Moreover, Rushdie confronts the difficulty of translating uniquely Indian experiences into the English language. In doing so, he mediates the Indian experience to Western readers, while evoking images that resonate with many Indian readers as well. As such, "Haroun" becomes Rushdie’s two-fold translation of both Islam and the Indian experience; especially the Indian childhood experience. Through the critical lenses of theorists such as Edward Said, Akbar Ahmed, Aron Aji, and Suchismita Sen, my paper will focus on how Rushdie accomplishes his multiple cultural translations.

Who’s afraid of the Little Red Hood? Innocence and guilt in two retellings of “Little Red Riding Hood”

Vanessa Joosen (2d)

The issues of innocence and guilt have been central to the discussion of Charles Perrault’s and the Brothers Grimm’s versions of “Little Red Riding Hood,” most notably in the works of Bruno Bettelheim, Maria Tatar, Jack Zipes, Sandra Beckett and Catherine Orenstein. Why does Red Riding Hood direct the wolf to her grandmother’s house, for instance? And does she have a part in seducing the wolf when he lures her into the grandmother’s bed? The debate whether or not Red Riding Hood is guilty of her grandmother’s and her own death, has occupied authors of fairy-tale retellings as well. My presentation will focus on two contemporary picture-book versions of “Little Red Riding Hood”: Le petit chaperon de ta couleur (Little Riding Hood of Your Colour) by Vincent Malone, Jean-Louis Cornalba and Chloé Sadoun (France, 2002) and Rood Rood Roodkapje (Red Red Red Riding Hood) by Edward van de Vendel and Isabelle Vandenabeele (Belgium, 2003). These authors and illustrators re-shift the traditional roles of the fairy tales and add supplementary messages, for instance by making use of collage techniques and colour symbolism. As such the two retellings shed new light on the supposed innocence of Red Riding Hood and the alleged guilt of the wolf. Yet at the same time, Red Red Riding Hood gives a feminist twist to the tale, turning it into a tale of female and childhood empowerment and liberation, whereas Le petit chaperon de ta couleur humorously promotes ecologist values through its revisions.

Bilingual Books and Rhizomic Reading: A Deleuzian case Study of Folke Tegetthoff’s Contemporary Fairy tale, “Les Butinamours/Boskabauter

Jane Newland (2d)

This work extends the conference theme of ‘Lost in Translation’ to the small, but growing field of bilingual texts for young readers, and showcases Folke Tegetthoff’s original and contemporary fairy tale entitled Les Butinamours/Boskaubauter. Whilst the majority of bilingual texts are created specifically for didactic purposes, this text is unusual in that it is first and foremost a reading book. Moving from a textual analysis of not only the translation from German to French but also from word to the images that accompany the text, this paper asks the question ‘how can such texts be read?’ and suggests that the radical philosophies of Gilles Deleuze may provide an answer. This paper draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome and develops the idea of rhizomic reading, a process which may reveal how young readers negotiate the complexities of bilingual texts. In a rhizomic interpretation of a bilingual text, connectivity is paramount. Like the surfer of the web, the reader surfs the texts in search of connections between language(s) and image. Once a link has been made, intensity flows. This paper concludes that when reading bilingual books, readers are not ‘lost in translation’, but rather caught in the middle of a rhizomic and intense flow interlinking text and image.

Evacuated Children: Britain WWII

Anne Scott MacLeod (3a)

The adult literature is voluminous, though the children's fiction is not. But to understand the fiction, one must know the historical context, which includes the adult non-fiction on the subject. I want to give a sense of how a really good author can go beyond the surface facts of the evacuation experience to explore the lasting effect, good as well as bad, of such a childhood trauma. Thousands of British children were evacuated during WWII from cities targeted by German bombers. Early on, hundreds of children went to Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. After the sinking of the City of Benares, with the loss of many of the children on board, overseas evacuations ended. Children were sent instead to the safer British villages and countryside, and billeted on local households. The experience of the evacuated children, their parents and their host families was emotionally complex. While there were children’s books written about the evacuations early on, (e.g. P.L. Travers: I Go by Land, I Go by Sea, 1941) they were necessarily written from the outside. Though they were sympathetic and even perceptive about a child’s anxieties, the point of view was discernibly adult and limited. The translation of children’s experience as evacuees into a nuanced fiction that told the story from the inside had to wait until some of those children grew up and became writers. That fiction began to be written in the 60s and 70s by such authors as Jill Payton Walsh, Nina Bawden, Hester Burton and Robert Westall, and by others less well known. Non-fictional adult accounts illuminate the children’s fiction and provide context. Ben Wicks’s No Time to Wave Goodbye (1988) combines quotations from interviews with former evacuees with a narrative by the author. Government reports, personal reminiscences (Bryan Breed, Harbert Wally, Victoria Massey) and compilations of evacuee’s tales (Christopher Brooks, Joy Richardson) –are numerous and informative.

Violence in Narnia and Harry Potter

Şukran Kara (3a)

When the best-selling children books are investigated closely, it can easily be deduced that magic, bewitching and prophecy fortune-telling are the most widely focused themes and, unfortunately, the concepts of fantasia and gothic are usually used interchangeably. For instance, in the Harry Potter series, white- and black-magic are the themes focused on, and the action of violence together with its impact is being exhibited as if such an action is a matter of attraction. Although the violence actions of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” may not be considered disturbing in connection with its being a fantastic and modern novel, the main threatening factor is the acceptance of magic and violence positively under the mask of fantasia. It is a generally known fact that children are being negatively affected by the fiction they read without noticing their dangerous impacts. Within this frame, the similarities of the themes and the roles of the heroes of the two fantastic novels, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” may both be taken into account under the intertextual relations. The primary objective of this study is to determine the similarities between the features deduced by Umberto Eco in his study of “Ur Fascism,” and those in aforementioned fantastic novels based on their comparison. Impacts of the violence and the Ideology imposed by both of the above mentioned fantastic novels are also included in this study.

The Adaptation of Greek Mythology into Hebrew Children Literature

Yaacov Shavit (3a)

 In traditional Judaism and Jewish culture (as well as in Muslim culture) Greek (and Roman) mythology is considered as a manifestation of a pagan world view consisting of immoral values. Thus, even if traditional Jewish literature was alluding to mythological figures, it never went as far as retelling mythological stories. Only from the dawn of the modern Jewish Enlightenment movement (the late 18 century onward) and the secularization of Jewish society and culture, Jewish writers began to use mythological themes in their literary works.

 Based on this deep rooted rejection of pagan myths, it was only natural that efforts were made to protect the Jewish child from the harming influence of these myths and their immoral world. And indeed, adaptations of mythological stories for the young Jewish readers were first published only in the early years of the 20^th century. However, since then, many adaptations for children appeared in Hebrew, and became a popular reading material. In my presentation I will discuss the cultural process that made Greek mythology legitimate literature for young readers and how it was – and is – perceived in Hebrew literary system during the last 100 years.

Splinched in Translation – a translator’s perspective on the “Harry Potter” books

Gili Bar-Hillel (3b)

The "Harry Potter" books are amongst the most widely translated books in the history of literature. Millions of readers worldwide know Harry Potter only through translated texts. Nonetheless, some readers for whom English is a second language and who would not normally read a book in English are willing to make an exception for new Harry Potter books, rather than wait several months for the translation to become available. These readers will often later reread the books in translation, sometimes for the sake of evaluating the translation as opposed to merely enjoying the plot. This makes for some interesting challenges for the translators, and unique interactions between fans and translators have developed. As translator of the Harry Potter books into Hebrew, I propose to share some of my personal experiences and insights relating to the translation of these books. The fanatical interest that the books have elicited, in particular among young readers, has led to unusually impassioned responses to the translations, for better or for worse. Classic dilemmas familiar to translators of literary texts are reopened and seen in a fresh perspective. The anecdotes I’ve collected over the years shed light over just what it is that readers expect a translation to deliver, how the expectations differ between different kinds of readers, and why translations by their very nature will inevitably fail to live up to certain expectations.

Autotranslation in current Basque children’s literature

Jose Manuel López Gaseni (3b)

The aim of this paper is to present a reflection on the psychological mechanisms involved in autotranslation, which are related with the feeling of inferiority of the marginal or minority literatures. Thus, some authors belonging to bilingual communities do without the translators and decide to re-write their works in the other language, adding or deleting some features in order to adapt them to the new readers. After all, those authors have chosen to write in a minority language, but at the same time they are looking for acceptance and recognition of surrounding great languages and cultures. Afterwards, I analyze four autotranslation models of the current  Basque children’s literature, specifically that of the 1990s , belonging to four of the most appreciated authors from that literary scene: Bernardo Atxaga, Mariasun Landa, Patxi Zubizarreta and Juan Kruz Igerabide. As a result of the research, different strategies can be seen: an excessive tendency to the adequacy side, cultural adaptations, or re-writings, of works leaning to the acceptability side (according to Gideon Toury’s proposals).

The Translation of Children’s Literature into Malay: Context and Strategies

Haslina Haroon (3b)

The translation of children's literature from English into Malay in Malaysia can be said to have begun during the period of British colonisation of the country. This practice, which has continued until the present day, has created a wealth of children's literature in Malay. The objective of this paper is to examine the context and circumstances surrounding the translation of children's literature into Malay in Malaysia and to look into the types of works which have been translated into Malay. The paper also aims to analyse the strategies which have been used to translate children's literature into Malay and to examine how children's literature in Malay translation have been presented to the target readers. By looking at the Malaysian scene and focusing on a number of children's work which have been translated from English into Malay, it is hoped that the paper will be able to demonstrate how the act of translation is shaped and circumscribed by factors operating at the target system.

The translation of culture through adolescent fiction.

Kim Szymanski (3c)

Besley 2002 suggests that what we think of as 'youth' differs in different theoretical positions but that they are defined against philosophical notions of the self or subject. Giroux (1990) suggests that we need to reconsider our notions of identities because of the emergence of new hybridised forms of identity emerging in response to an increasingly globalised world. Luke (2000) calls for the development of new tools to explain and understand a set of new and unprecedented historical phenomena in the form of subjectivities depicting a multiplicity of cultures and ethnicities. One such tool is children's literature which I will suggest translates cultural multiplicity through significant characterisation in fiction in order to develop understandings of identities. This paper examines the contribution that two authors of adolescent fiction make to translating identities within texts. The work of Bali Rai and the work of Randa Abdel Fattah will be explored in order to examine how through focalisation the intersections of different cultures act on individual subjectivities. The paper will critically analyse how the texts translate cultural mores and their effects on individuals.

Translating "World Friendship" Into Children's Literature

Marietta Frank (3c)

World friendship, internationalism, international-mindedness, world citizenship, permanent peace: each of these appeared in periodical articles in the two decades following the end of World War I as important goals that could be achieved through children’s literature.  Hugh Lofting’s 1924 article, “World Friendship and Children’s Literature” enumerates “the aims that […] such a literature should include” (12). As worthy as the goals and aims were, they did not necessarily result in the kind of children’s books that proved to be successful in achieving these goals. Today publishers, authors, and educators still aspire to these same, or at least very similar, goals. American Girl published eight books in their short-lived, The Girls of Many Lands Series (2002-2003) hoping “that by learning about and identifying with a character whose life is very different from their own, girls will grow—both intellectually and emotionally—in understanding, tolerance, and compassion.” Are they likely to be any more successful in what Lofting calls, “an enlightened development of the children”? What are they doing differently? This paper looks at post-World War I attempts at educating children through children’s literature to become sensitive, enlightened world citizens by considering Lucy Fitch Perkins’s “Twins of the World Series”, American Girls “The Girls of Many Lands” Series, as well as books by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Rachna Gilmore.

The Great Divide: the difficulty of translating culture

Stephanie Hepner (3c)

European countries have a strong literary tradition of creating works for children and young adults. Many of these books are translated into other European languages, making them available to wider audiences. Realistic European literature for young adults is rarely successfully translated for American audiences because the cultural assumptions which form the backdrop of the plot are too alien for their readers.Guus Kuijer’s “Voor altijd samen, amen” was successfully translated into German by Sylke Hachmeister, titled “Wir alle fuer immer zusammen.” This realistic young adult novel describes two children as they deal with real teen issues. German teens readily understand Dutch culture, which is not that different from their own, and can follow the situations presented in the book. A private project to translate the book for American students quickly fell through, however, because the explanation of the cultural assumptions implicit in the plot would have required an additional novel-length work in order for American teens to fully understand the issues at play. The most notable European children’s books to be successfully translated into English and enjoyed by American audiences are Cornelia Funke’s “Inkheart” and “Inkspell.” These books, however, do not deal primarily with teen issues in a realistic setting, but instead frame them in the context of a fantasy world which is equally foreign to all children. When issues of maturation, family problems, and identity are presented in realistic European cultural settings, the books lack appeal to wider American audiences because they are unaccustomed to the culture.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe’s Original Spirit Lost in Filmic Transformation: Incongruous Intertextuality in Adamson’s 2005 version.

Lance Weldy (4a)

C.S. Lewis’ first installment of the Chronicles of Narnia has remained popular since the 1950s, and it is one of the world’s most well known fantasy series.  Since the 1950s, Lewis’ multi-dimensional book has been transformed into radio dramas as well as several movies.  These transformations have ranged in success, but all have been translated with notable or subtle signs of the cultural milieu from which the adaptation comes.  Andrew Adamson’s latest adaptation (2005) is no exception, but it is probably the most blatant example of negatively translating a canonical story from one time period into another.  While the movie successfully uses state-of-the art equipment to show fantastic and visually stunning scenes, it also attempts to infuse a contemporary, postmodern mindset which differs from the content of the original story. 

In my presentation, I will first elaborate and explain two interrelated themes that provide the interpretive lens for this critique—Intertextuality and Transformation, both pertaining to the relationship between the original text and adaptations, and how these adaptations differ from the original.  Essentially, attempts to translate the timelessness of human values embedded in the original text are lost amid the Transformation. Drawing on comparative critiques of both works and by using several film clips, I argue that Adamson’s project loses its message through film translation, and I will document the film’s significant failure to capture the original text’s message of accepting responsibility and asserting a sense of duty.  Through a detailed analysis of script, plot, and character, I will show how the original work’s integrity is lost in the film, and how its potential to be of both informational and formational value in the lives of young people across cultures is destroyed. 

“We’re Off to See the Wizard” - 100 years of adapting The Wizard of Oz

Julie Barton (4a)

If one form of translation is the movement of narratives from one genre to another, then the transformation of The Wizard of Oz (book, 1900) to The Wizard of Oz (film, 1939) to The Wiz (musical, 1975) to Wicked (book, 1995) to Wicked (musical, 2003) can be seen as translating the story for changing audiences using a variety of mediums.  Spanning over a hundred years, the various incarnations of this contemporary fairy tale keep certain components from the original and change others in an attempt to be both socially relevant and popular. My presentation investigates three key issues that arise from a close study of The Wizard of Oz in its many forms; intended audience, available mediums, and changing characterization.  Baum’s book, riddled with many socio-political overtones, has become a key children’s literature text, whereas Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) is firmly rooted in the genre of adult literature.  What are the similarities and differences of these two books published almost 100 years apart, intended for different audiences, but containing the same characters? The widest intended audience springs from the popular movie (1939) and two musicals (1975, 2003), pandering to children and adults alike.  Therefore, audience factors heavily in an investigation of medium—why are some stories told in books, others films, and still others on stage—and how does this affect the intended audience and the story itself? Finally, I examine how the two latest tellings (Wicked the book and Wicked the musical) provide a back-story to the Wicked Witch of the West, and what this re-imaging of the villain implies with regards to characterization.

"Splendid Godparents"- Erich Kästner's Version of 'Don Quichotte' as an Example of World Literature for Children

Stefanie Weber (4a)

The paper assesses the adaptation of one of the finest novels in the history of literature – Miguel de Cervantes’ 'Don Quixote' (1605) – by one of the most popular German writers of children’s literature, Erich Kästner. Much like Swifts 'Gulliver’s Travels' (1726) or Defoe’s 'Robinson Crusoe' (1719), 'Don Quixote' became part of international canonized children’s literature, without any intention of its author. In a speech in 1953 Kästner called these works and their authors “splendid godparents, powerful friends and interesting educators” for young people. It is hence no surprise that in 1956 he published his own version of 'The Life and Deeds of the Sagacious Knight Don Quichotte', a story of literature, a pathological desire to read and of following one’s dreams. The paper focuses on how Kästner changed this “splendid godparent” to make 'Don Quichotte' appealing to a young audience. Zohar Shavit’s 'Poetics of Children’s Literature' (1986) offers a useful approach to the concept of adult’s and children’s literature as two different systems. To transfer a text like 'Don Quixote' from one system to the other usually involves deleting and changing contents to make the text understandable and morally suitable for children. Kästner’s strategies and their results will be explored. Auto reflexive literature will also be a key issue. The exploration of why Kästner thought the story about excessive reading leading to a serious mental disorder worthy of being read by a young audience, offers a deep insight into his concept of literature and children’s literature.

Science Fiction as a way to actualise Ancient Wisdom in Children’s and Teen Fiction

Marta Dorigo Salamon (4b)

Contemporary teen’s fiction and children’s literature although dealing with modernity still presents strong reference to ancient mythology and to the Ancient Wisdom. We might think that the sons and daughters of this society should have completely lost their interest for the ancient stories about fairies and magic, still books as Harry Potter gain an enormous success. The paper will focus on two series of books, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and La bambina della Sesta Luna (The child of the Sixth Moon) by Moony Witcher as two examples of how contemporary writers use Ancient Wisdom in their works. Eoin Colfer is a newly world-wide famous Irish writer and in Artemis Fowl has made use of the Irish mythology, engaging teens from all over the world; Moony Witcher (nickname of Roberta Rizzo) is a brilliant Italian writer, whose books have just been published outside Italy (France, Spain, Brazil, Russia, China and Chorea among the others) and in her books, dealing with Alchemy, she has been able to engage millions of Italian children. The paper will present how both writers use a sort of science fiction approach to actualize the Ancient Wisdom, therefore allowing contemporary children and teens to enjoy and learn it. It will also argue whenever this way is a suitable approach to prevent from loosing our mythology and our ancient knowledge.

Children's literature in the post-secular society

Åse Marie Ommundsen (4b)

Globalization brings forward the religious. In societies believed to be totally secularized, religious matters has been brought into the debate. This is seen in the dialogue between Habermas and Ratzinger, who claim that we live in a new situation where religious beliefs must be taken seriously. We now live in a post-secular age, Habermas claims. In my paper I will discuss how this idea of the post-secular age is mirrored in Norwegian children's literature. In what ways are religious questions raised in literature? What existential questions, and what answers are suggested in the late modern Norwegian children's literature? I will use to different examples in my discussion: A novel called "12 things which have to be done before the world goes under"(2001) and a picture book called "The Frog" (2003) (both titles in my own translation).

Translating the Spiritual in Children's Literature
Catherine Posey (4b)

How are spiritual ideas and experiences “translated” into accessible forms for children? In The Spirit of the Child David Hay suggests that there should be a variety of ways spiritual and religious experiences and ideas manifest. Hay states that religion “needs to turn to other modes of expression…these aspects of human behaviour occupy the ‘transitional space’ between fantasy and reality. Hence, though they may have their roots in the physical world, their articulation necessarily borrows qualities from the creative imagination” (Hay & Nye 1998:52). I would like to suggest that literature for children effectively “translates” spiritual and otherworldly concepts and experiences into accessible forms for its readers. In fact, I believe that narrative for children is an exceptional vehicle for expressing spirituality-in a completely different way than other types of literature. In this paper, I will attempt to define the term “spirituality” in relation to children’s literature and suggest specific representations of spirituality that manifest in children’s literature. These representations include the notion of profound wonder, an aesthetic appreciation for the natural world, the struggle between good and evil, the experience of relational connection, coincidence/providential aid, the individual’s connectedness to the past, and the concept of hope. Additionally, I will examine Madeleine L’Engle’s fantasy, A Wrinkle in Time (1962), and explore the spiritual dimension of this text. In conclusion, I will explain why spiritual aspects of children’s books deserve attention and why texts that accommodate spiritual and otherworldly themes are especially significant for today’s child.

Children's Literature, Video Games and Translation

Miguel Bernal (4c)

Every new form of entertainment has rendered the stories of our most beloved writers into different forms, maximising the characteristics of the new medium. From ancient texts to science fiction novels, the written word has always captured artists’ imagination from the moment they were published. Nowadays, we find music scores and ballet choreographies, plays and films based on the works of our most popular storytellers. Cross-pollination between the arts is also commonplace, and new forms of expression and entertainment influence each other in the multidirectional flux of culture. In the 21st century, the new medium is computer technology, and the industry behind it is the entertainment software industry, most commonly known as the ‘game industry'. Entertainment software products are a worldwide phenomenon generating billions in revenue, matching, even surpassing, the benefits of other entertainment industries like TV, music, and cinema. It is not surprising then that so many cinema blockbusters come out with the immediate release of a game version of the film, especially in the market devoted to children’s entertainment, where most children’s novels are being transformed into multimedia interactive products. Children can now play the video game of their favourite story, where they can join in the adventure actually entering the shoes of their favourite characters. But what are the implications for literature and for translation?

From books to screen – the consequences of transferring children’s books to cartoons

Ana Popovic (4c)

Childhood has become a powerful source of income for many industries. It is exploited in so many ways that it is hard to find any segment of life of a parent which is not subject to the ever-hungry machine of the corporate world trying to sell us something that is good for our children. Anything can be converted into money. Even books. Even children‘s books. In this paper I would like to address the issue of turning children’s books into cartoons, what the implication of this is are, how literary works are reshaped in the process, and how much is gained and lost in the process. I will take two examples, from two very different works, cultures and languages to serve as examples. One is A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, and the other is Tove Jansson’s Moomin oeuvre. Both works have been heavily franchised, and this has influenced the perception that today‘s children have of their heroes. I would like to go back to the originals and find out how much has the transfer to a different media (namely cartoons) simplified the imaginative worlds of the books. Consequently, my intention is to ‘rescue’ the points of the original works that have been ‘lost in translation’ by oversimplifying, sugar-coating treatment that was given to the novels when they were made into televised entertainment.

Gulliver's Travels or "All's Well"

Ana Hornero (4d)

Of all the literary Swiftian production only Gulliver's Travels has been taken to the screen. A search through all the adaptations of this work to the cinema or made for TV renders a total of 16 film productions, three of them made in Spain. This paper aims at showing the extent to which film adaptations conceived for a young audience present the original version (a harsh satire against the social customs and political situation in Swift's days) in an altogether different light. The choice of three versions, namely, Gulliver's Travels, directed by D. Fleischer (1939), Viaje al País de los Gigantes (A Voyage to the Country of Giants) directed by Cruz Delgado (1983) and Gulliver's Travels, directed by D. Eskenazi (1995, intends to show a shared pattern reflected in these different stories, consisting mainly in a portrait of Gulliver as an unquestionable hero, a diversion from the original plot, getting far from the critical view of the original and with a clear intention to please a young audience, the presence of humorous elements as a tool to attract children, the entertaining role of songs and the addition of a moral at the end. This analysis forms part of a research project funded by the Aragonese government (Spain), whose main goal is the study of the reception of Swift's works in Spain.

Gulliver’s Travels: the world of adaptations

Pilar González Vera (4d)

The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the process of adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels for children’s literature. An attempt is made to examine different Spanish adaptations of this novel. For this purpose three adaptations are studied: Viajes de Gulliver (1926. Barcelona: Col. Araluce), Los Viajes de Gulliver (1963. Madrid: Ed. Paulinas) and Los Viajes de Gulliver (1979. Barcelona-Madrid-Buenos Aires: Ed. Toray). They have in common that they have just depicted the two first travels– to Lilliput and to Brobdingnag –. Those target texts could provide the basis for the translation and adaptation of adventure classics. This presentation is an interim report on a current research programme, which is investigating the reception of Swift’s works in Spain and their translations into Spanish. The paper will focus more specifically on the adaptation of certain lexical and stylistic choices of the translator in Spanish language. These choices include: the translation of measures, of proper names, of imaginary names, the omission of certain episodes, the use of implicatures as well as the preference for direct or indirect style.

How Gulliver Travels in Turkey: Diversity and Change in Retranslations of Gulliver’s Travels in Turkish (4d)

Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar

Well over thirty translations of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels have been carried out in Turkish after the publication of the first translation in 1872 (Güliver Nam Müellifin Seyahatnamesi [The Travelogue of the Author Named Gulliver], translated by Mahmud Nedim, Istanbul: Millet Kütüphanesi, 1872). The majority of the translations appeared as children’s novels and targeted different age groups. This is evident both from their format and paratextual aspects such as book covers and prefaces. Some of these are full translations, while some only consist of the first and/or the second parts of the novel, omitting the third and the fourth parts, usually deemed unsuitable for a child readership. Some of the retranslations were full translations of the two sections while the majority were abridged translations, targeting young children. The paper will carry out a descriptive analysis of all available retranslations of Gulliver’s Travels in Turkish addressing a child readership based on a series of criteria such as textual integrity, treatment of foreign cultural elements and paratextual features including book covers, prefaces and illustrations. The study will also raise a number of questions regarding the reception of the work in Turkey and set out to discover the reason behind its popularity and frequent translation. The analysis of the norms observed in the retranslations of Gulliver’s Travels will also offer a suitable ground for exploring issues such as canon-formation in children’s literature, changing conceptions of the “child” and “children’s literature” in Turkey as well as the way in which cultural “otherness” was erased or promoted in translations.