Концепции за различието в детската литература

Knowledge of "differences" or acceptance of "others" has been observed and studied in children's literature since its inception. The text begins by examining the "natural" differences between adults and children, which support the creation of literature that should overcome or represents these differences. It analyzes the changing categories of difference which occur over time with the development of children's literature and ends with a brief review of the issue of physical size, as it represents a significant response that affects both the relations between adults and children in real life and the experience of children as readers. On the one hand, the narrative of transformation calls for children to leave childhood behind and resemble the adults or to meet a nostalgic notion of a childhood that has never existed. Narrative of the "resistance", on the other hand, states more flexible constructs of childhood that mark the difference and offer the child within the text or outside it additional opportunities for various identities.