Abstract
In information books for children that present the different religions of the world, there can be a striking difference between the information given in the verbal text and that in the illustrations. While the texts strive to be objective and merely explain the character of the religions, the pictures very often reduce their representatives to types in a way that emphasizes their otherness or exotic character. The illustrations construct the image of a strange religion, while the texts try to minimize the differences between the reader’s religion and the others. Gabriele von Glasenapp focuses on non-fiction published in Germany during the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first, paying special attention to translations into German, and she asks whether these processes of exoticization are specific to German non-fiction.
Translated from German by Michael Loughridge
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Notes
- 1.
Throughout the history of research on German children’s literature, however, there has been only occasional critical scrutiny of the close link between religion and literature. The entry “Religiöses Kinder- und Jugendbuch” (Religious Children’s Literature) in Doderer’s Lexikon der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur consists solely of cross-references to entries about relevant institutions and publishing houses as well as to entries about central subgenres of religious literature, such as legends, morally improving literature, catechisms, bibles, and prayers for children (Anon. 1979, 160). Günter Lange has been inconsistent in his handling of the topic in the relevant handbooks edited by him. The first edition (Lange 2000) had a chapter on the genre of religious children’s literature (Born 2000), but in the later edition (Lange 2011) the chapter was dropped. Similarly, there is no chapter on religious children’s literature in the history of German children’s literature edited by Rainer Wild (2008). Slightly more work has been done in research on Anglophone children’s literature. The Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English has an entry titled “Religious Stories” by Joseph Stanton (2001). The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature has one titled “Contemporary Religious Writing (Ghesquière 2004), and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature has entries titled “Religious Instruction and Education” (Bigger 2006a) and “Religious Writing” (Bigger 2006b). A collection dedicated to the subject of Religion, Children’s Literature and Modernity in Western Europe 1750–2000 was published in 2005 (De Maeyer et al. 2005). However, none of these specifically addresses information picturebooks or subjects relating to illustration, nor do they examine religious children’s literature from a transcultural perspective. Moreover, although the timespan covered reaches to 2000, the majority of the contributions engage with historical rather than contemporary aspects.
- 2.
First among these are the Handbücher zur Geschichte der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur vom Beginn des Buchdrucks bis ins Jahr 1900 (History of Children’s Literature from the Earliest Printed Books to 1900), compiled at Cologne University. The central importance of religious children’s literature in almost all periods of German history is such that more often than not it heads the list of the genres. Cf. Brüggemann and Brunken (1987, cols. 143–300); Brüggemann and Brunken (1991, cols. 59–306); Brüggemann and Ewers (1982, cols. 681–812); Brunken, Hurrelmann, and Pech (1998, cols. 171–283); see also Brunken et al. (2008, cols. 761–78).
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Although the border zones between literature, religion, and religious literature and the dynamics of the three-way interface are now recognized topics in general literature lexica (cf. Auerochs 2008; Hammer 2008), cultural studies scholarship has grappled only sporadically with the particular implications of the theme. Significantly enough, there is no entry titled “Religion” in Handbuch Populäre Kultur (Handbook of Popular Culture) (Hügel 2003).
- 6.
Cf. http://141.2.185.24:8060/alipac/FJTGPJDDPMIPNUWKWYAT-00021 Religion&C2=%29&F1=ALL&A1=N&x=0&y=0 (accessed June 7, 2014).
- 7.
See Langenhorst (2011, 14–7) for comprehensive specification and categorization.
- 8.
Prominent among these were biblical legends and children’s bibles, of which a range remain on sale. See, for instance, the leaflet Empfehlenswerte Kinderbibeln (Recommended Bibles for Children), published by Evangelisches Literaturportal (Braun 2011).
- 9.
This shift in the genre profile accompanied changes in the publishing field. The works no longer emanate solely from devotional (Christian) publishers; about two-thirds of the titles are now issued by major German mainstream publishers such as Ravensburger, Gerstenberg, and cbj.
- 10.
Cf. e.g. Das Hausbuch der Weltreligionen (Housebook of the Religions of the World) (Schulz-Reiss 2012); The Lion Encyclopedia of World Religions (Self 2008); Rund um die Weltreligionen (About World Religions) (Mai 2008); A Faith Like Mine: A Celebration of the World’s Religions through the Eyes of Children (Buller 2005); Encyclopedia of Religion (Wilkinson and Charing 2004); Weltreligionen (Religions of the World) (Kehnscherper 1998); Die großen Religionen der Welt (The Great Religions of the World) (Barnes 2003); Die Weltreligionen (The World Religions) (Zitelmann 2009).
- 11.
- 12.
The potent role of illustrations in the communicative impact of children’s literature has been recognized since the early Enlightenment, as evident in contemporary commentaries on Comenius’s Orbis sensualium pictus (1653).
- 13.
At the same time information texts can, in the same way as fictional formats, be used as raw material for the imagination (Steinlein 2010, 39)—for instance, with regard to foreign cultures. However, studies to date unanimously maintain that for non-fiction, as opposed to fiction, this is merely a possible side effect and not the main intention (ibid.)—a stance that, in the light of the text-image strategies outlined above, seems no longer tenable.
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von Glasenapp, G. (2017). Information or Exoticization? Constructing Religious Difference in Children’s Information Books. In: O'Sullivan, E., Immel, A. (eds) Imagining Sameness and Difference in Children's Literature. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46169-8_8
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