History, Literature and Childhood: Encounters and Departures
History, Literature and Childhood: Encounters and Departures

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents and interprets the reception of the history of childhood in literary studies. More specifically, it discusses the circumstances and the principles of accepting Philippe Ariès' study in the works on the subject of children's literature. Special attention is given to the approval with which literary scholars dealing with children's literature have treated Ariès' deductions and conclusions. Possible theoretical foundations for this approval are examined on the example of Zohar Shavit's article, which deals with the relationship between several variants of the Little Red Riding Hood and the historically different concepts of childhood. The paper discusses the problems of treating the context as a stable and clearly delimited element of literary analysis, the problems of understanding literature as an illustration of the social norms, the problem of a cause-effect understanding of the relationship between history and society. Finally, the paper discusses the problems of understanding literature as an entirely produced rather than a productive social force.

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