Konwencja pamiętnika, dziennika, autobiografii w książkach o wojnie dla młodego czytelnika
The literary convention of a journal, diary and autobiography in books on war for a young reader

Author(s): Bożena Olszewska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: children’s literature; image of war; Holocaust; remembrancee
Summary/Abstract: The selection of books about war for young readers is impressive thanks to the joint effort of writers and publishers (e.g. Wydawnictwo Muchomor, Stentor, Literatura, The State Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, The Warsaw Rising Museum). Most works are prose: diaries, journals, memoirs; stylized texts (fictional diaries, memoirs, stories, chronicles), and autobiographical works. What they have in common is the figure of the narrator: a child, teenager or adult, who gives an account of events either from the perspective of “here and now” or “then and today”. The artistic consequences of such a creation of the subject include emotionalism and subjectivity of narration, a protagonist involved in the history, and a simplified depiction of reality that reflects the protagonist’s mentality. The reality — tragic and hostile — is often toned down by a child’s perspective, a story created without an “intelligent” reflection or told in a both tragic and ironic manner through juxtapositions: contrasting the present with the past, the everyday with the festive, the trivial with the tragic; and through giving a new meaning to the obvious, e.g. a Jewish child playing hide-and-seek.

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