Children's Literature as World Literature (Roundtable / In-Person)


Special Session
World Literatures and Comparative Studies / Genres and Audiences

Melek Ortabasi (Simon Fraser University)
mele@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

This roundtable seeks to gather a wide range of theoretical and geographical perspectives that address children's literature as a form of world literature. Participants will help shape the direction of a collaborative book project on the same subject.

This roundtable will be one of several conversations organized by the convenor intended to shape a collaborative book project for the Bloomsbury series Literatures as World Literature (https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/series/literatures-as-world-literature/), to be entitled Children's Literature as World Literature. To begin shaping this anthology, which intends to include a broad array of perspectives, this roundtable invites a proposals that address one or more of the following questions, preferably with some reference to a specific geographical and/or theoretical approach:

How do we understand the relationship between children’s literature as part of world (children’s) literature?

What is the relationship between national (children’s) literatures and world (children’s) literature?

How do conceptions of children and their literature(s) affect this debate?

What is the role of translation in this debate?

Who is included and who is left out of these debate? Why?

What can be done to create a more inclusive world children's literature?