engleski

Storyworld Transformations in mid-20th-Century Croatian Picturebooks

There is little research on Croatian children’s literature after WWII. It was the time of radical transformation of historical, ideological and cultural contexts that influenced everyday routines, set new norms of social conduct and established a new system of values. What the society expects from children is inscribed in words and images offered to them through picturebooks and children’s literature (Stephens 1992). The present study analyses the elements of storyworlds – as defined in recent narratology (Ryan 2014) – depicted in Croatian picturebooks published before WWII and in the period 1945–1955. It aims to establish how meanings and overall significance of the narratives are transformed in the new circumstances and how changing ideological and cultural norms govern the selection and presentation of topics. The analysis of characters and their constructed identities in social contexts, the selection of events, and the settings, reveals that there is a radical change in the nature of storyworlds in picturebooks published soon after WWII and in those published earlier. The playfulness and individuality in earlier publications are replaced by seriousness and collective identity in those published after 1945. Yet, after 1950 there is a slight shift towards a more relaxed attitude, albeit cautiously disguised through animal characters.

Croatian picturebooks ; ideology ; storyworld ; post-WWII period ; identity

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