Wojna w oczach dziecka. Analiza leksyki w literaturze dla dzieci i młodzieży
War in the Eyes of a Child. Analysis of Lexis in Children and Youth Literature

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents war literature for children and young people. The perspective of the analysis is multi-layered and the whole work deals with the important and difficult topic of warfare, persecution of ethnic, religious and national groups, expulsion and the Warsaw Uprising. It takes into account both the nature of the topic covered and the age of the audience, which is important because of the vocabulary used in the text. The article has inaccuracies resulting from the lack of specific guidelines for adapting the literature to the competence of the young addressee. (This is not the case with guidelines for computer games or school reading). These are additional difficulties that an adult has to deal with when choosing a book for a child. Therefore, it is important to know the child, their maturity level and their knowledge of the story, and often the best solution is to simply read together. When analysing the books discussed in this article, attention should also be paid to the time period of the plot – pre-war, war, post-war – the form of the narrative and the language or stylistic devices used to describe the war. The most popular ways of telling about war are metaphors, similes, personification. War is often compared to a monster or a giant that destroys everything around it – both materially and spiritually. In turn, the characters and situations described are presented on the basis of the opposition of good and evil, white and black, or in the situation of description from the perspective of time: past and present. In addition, linguistic activities that convey the emotions the reader feels while reading and experiences together with the characters are presented. The language games, e.g. Władza Ludowa described as Władza Lodowa, or the diminutive sklepiszcza, are not only interesting solutions that add variety to the text, but also facilitate the understanding of the atmosphere of the time described. An important element of the analysis is the narration from the perspective of children, both Poles who grew up during the war and Jews who were separated from their families and hidden. Such a description makes it easier for the reader to identify with the character and better understand the content.

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