Spatial turn in literature for children and adolescents
Keywords:
children‘s literature, adolescents‘ literature, space, positionality, identitiesAbstract
Space as a text presents a different perspective when it comes to dealing with reading and analysis of literary texts. The various spaces in there address the simultaneity of events that make up the plot, the interweaving of different characters‘ stories, the interrelationships that build their identities, the constant changes and the various positionalities -following Eric Sheppard- that the latter adopt in relation to other characters. This spatial perspective also enriches the analysis of literary texts for children and adolescents, whose development is constant, and whose complexity has been increasing in recent decades. The spatial turn sheds a different light when thinking about these texts that, under a deceptive simplicity, carry deep and often conflicting themes, hand in hand with an increasingly outstanding aesthetic quality. In this way, this article analyses different literary texts, such as short stories, album books and novels by various Anglophone authors. The aim is to show the different positions that the protagonists adopt in relation to the other characters and the ones that they take as a consequence of the circumstances that they experience, which helps them to create their own identities.
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