METHODOLOGY FOR INTERPRETATION OF SLOVENE CHILDREN LITERATURE

As stated in the theoretical study of children's literature Pogledi na mladinsko knjizevnost (Views on children's literature), by [Marjana Kobe] (1987:7-26), Slovene and wider European children's literature gradually transitioned from a literary to pedagogic science only in the late 1950s. The author cites fundamental European and Slovene scholarly books on the theory, history, and reception of children's literature. She also notes the formation of specialized scholarly periodical publishing in this area, such as the journal Otrok in knjiga (Children and books), which since 1972 has been the main "journal for issues in children's literature, literary education, and book-related media," and she also highlights different research directions and methods. The methodology for researching children's literature is determined not only by the reader and all the complexity of the genre's double addressee-quality children's literature is intended not only for young readers (children and youth), but for adult readers as well-although this in fact is the starting point that enables critical and interpretative reading, in addition to establishing the possibility of (children's) subjective, experiential reception of a text. As a rule, study of children's literature at the university undergraduate level encompasses all three aspects of research in the area: literary history, literary theory, and reception. It requires students and future literature teachers to sharpen criteria for recognizing quality children's literature in all three literary genres (i.e., poetry, narrative prose, and drama) and visual-verbal creations like picture books. Reading texts, studying literature, and independently interpreting children's literature enable students to grasp the potential for subjective, yet well-founded and valid comprehension and assessment of texts. This core program of literary studies at the same time provides students a foundation in literarydidactic constructs of content and stylistic elements. Without exhaustive knowledge of classic and contemporary texts-short and seemingly simple, as well as extensive and hard to comprehend-it is impossible to expect future teachers and educators to manage the wide array of texts that appear under the label of children's literature and often require critical qualitative assessment. Evaluation of children's literature, mainly as ongoing release tracking, takes place at the Ljubljana City Library (Mestna kniznica) is Pionirska Center za