The "impossibility" of children's literature was the provocative consideration that Jacqueline Rose formulated in 1984, in her Case of Peter Pan, Or, the Impossibility of Children's Fiction. Is such literature children's fiction or is it just an adult projection of what children's fiction should be like? The same can be argued when it comes to young adult(s') fiction. How much of it is theirs? Scholarly writing about children's literature is anything but simple or childish, as many critics have discovered; critical analysis of children's stories presumes knowledge of many codes of interpretation, of historical developments, and of an enormous body of literature in general. Besides the difficulty of adults to understand the world of childhood and youth, it is even more difficult to grasp the rapid changes in their appreciation of stories, and keep up with such changes. In other words, it is difficult to assess and probe the implication of the addressee, the imagined child or the imagined youth and their relationships with texts addressed to them. Their appreciation of these texts should be of paramount importance. Scholars may read such texts with a double-faceted bias: they will make assumptions about the value of children and youth literature from the point of view of what they think they might have appreciated in their own childhood and youth, and about what children and young people might appreciate in the present. As Chris Crowe shows in his JSTOR article "Young Adult Literature", the vision of some teachers and most booksellers on what is YAL is very different from the literature young adults might appreciate. First, as he points out, most school librarians still insist that Gulliver's Travels or Great Expectations are books for teens and young adults. Booksellers will include all kinds of shallow literature for pre-teen girls in the designated book alleys.
There are so many 'ages' in the period between 3 to 16, so many differences between children and youth who live in urban and rural areas, so much to be said about how various categories of children and young adults perceive their experiences and there is much pressure from the social media, that the very finding of at least some titles that might be appreciated by most kids and teens is a very difficult task. Then, there are those books that take into consideration real life challenges like disabilities, gender issues, addiction, dramatic family arrangements, and others, which seem to have taken the place of the 'orphan' literature of the 19th century. To add to the complexity of the task, there is always the historical component, the discussion on genres, typologies, styles, and themes, there are codes of interpretation - symbolic, mythological, psychological, educational, etc.
To answer such challenges of scholarly discussion on literature for children and young adults, the organizers of this conference will try and suggest a few directions that might incite new approaches to the old themes, or demonstrate how old approaches can also be appropriate for new visions on this rich literature. Thus we encourage - and not restrict - contributions on the following:
- Children's and YA literature and its readership;
- Borders and crossovers between children/YA literature and literature for the adults;
- The literature of young adults - genres and tropes;
- Embracing new philosophical and social concerns in children and YA literature;
- Old and new fairy-tales;
- Evolution of characters in stories for children and young adults;
- Old and new symbolism in childhood and youth literature;
- Discussions on the canons of children and YA literature;
- From literature to films for children and young adults;
- Literature for and by children and YA.
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Abstracts of no more than 150 words will be sent to Assistant Professor Anamaria Fălăuș, Head of the Department of Philology and Cultural Studies - anamariafelecan@gmail.com - or to Associate Professor Ligia Tomoiaga, Head of the MA in English Literature for Children and Young Adults - ligiatomoiaga@gmail.com by March 20, 2023. Accepted contributors will be notified by March 30, 2023. All peer-reviewed contributions will be published in an e-book. Selected peer-reviewed contributions will be published in a volume at an accredited publishing house in Romania.
Conference fees for onsite presentations: Romanian contributors - 200 RON, 2023; foreign contributors €60, to be paid upon arrival.
Conference fees for online presentations: Romanian contributors - 100 RON; foreign contributors €35, to be paid by May 30, 2023.
All details regarding accounts, accommodation, venue, etc. will be available on the conference site, starting with March 15.
The conference will offer an official opening dinner and free coffee breaks. Please let us know if you have any dietary preferences.
Those contributors who want to also enjoy a two-day trip in our part of Northern Romania are asked to express their intention in an email sent to the organisers. The trip will include the Merry Cemetery in Săpânța, the Memorial of the Victims of Communism in Sighetu-Marmației, wooden churches in Maramureș County, the Village Museum in Sighetu Marmației, the Elie Wiesel memorial museum in Sighetu Marmației, sightseeing and traditional meals. The price for accommodation, meals and transportation is 500 RON (€100).