How to Recognize an Adult When You Meet One? : Adultness in the Novel Minoes and Its Film Adaptation

Children learn about the cultural meanings of age and aging from the people in their environment but also from the media. In an era in which the different life stages are understood as a continuum rather than separate categories, age socialization has probably become more complicated than ever before, making the role of the mediators—children’s books and flms included—especially important. This article explores the mediation of aging in Minoes (1970), a children’s book by Annie M. G. Schmidt—the most famous Dutch author of children’s books—and compares its age ideology to that of the flm adaptation, which appeared in 2001. The comparison is set against the background of changes over the last ffty years in how aging is perceived within Western societies. Both in the book and in the flm, this analysis shows, the model of standard adulthood is under revision. Instead of representing a fxed age identity, adulthood is portrayed as being as much a process of becoming as childhood is, as it is characterized by inner growth and making individual choices. Although the similarities between book and flm are more striking than the differences, the flm’s adult protagonists are slightly more capable of making their own decisions than those in the book; this difference mirrors the ongoing shift towards a changing perception of adultness that had only just started when the book was published in 1970

How to Recognize an Adult When You Meet One?

Children learn about the cultural meanings of age and aging from the people in their environment but also from the media. In an era in which the different life stages are understood as a continuum rather than separate categories, age socialization has probably become more complicated than ever before, making the role of the mediators—children’s books and flms included—especially important. This article explores the mediation of aging in Minoes (1970), a children’s book by Annie M. G. Schmidt—the most famous Dutch author of children’s books—and compares its age ideology to that of the flm adaptation, which appeared in 2001. The comparison is set against the background of changes over the last ffty years in how aging is perceived within Western societies. Both in the book and in the flm, this analysis shows, the model of standard adulthood is under revision. Instead of representing a fxed age identity, adulthood is portrayed as being as much a process of becoming as childhood is, as it is characterized by inner growth and making individual choices. Although the similarities between book and flm are more striking than the differences, the flm’s adult protagonists are slightly more capable of making their own decisions than those in the book; this difference mirrors the ongoing shift towards a changing perception of adultness that had only just started when the book was published in 1970

„Ich bin eine Märchenerzählerin. So wurde ich geboren.“

Ist Tonke Dragt die große Neuerin der europäischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur? Diese sicherlich provokante Frage nimmt der Sammelband in den Fokus, der auf die Tagung „'Ich bin eine Märchenerzählerin. So wurde ich geboren'. Tonke Dragts Jugendromane – übersehene Klassiker?", die im September 2019 an der Universität Siegen in Kooperation mit Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer stattgefunden hat, zurückgeht

How Readers Matter:Autobiographies of Childhood for Young Readers

In the 1990s, autobiographies of childhood were one of the most importantpublishing trends. These autobiographies challenge the Romantic notionof childhood, thus contributing to the contemporary societal debate aboutchildren and childhood in crisis. Taking into consideration that ideas aboutchildren and childhood are at the heart of children’s literature, it is remarkable that autobiographies of childhood for young readers go unnoticed in the discussion.</jats:p