Van den Bossche, Sara

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

20082009Reviews 2009Astrid Lindgren – Werk und Wirkung. Internationale undinterkulturelle Aspekte. [Astrid Lindgren – Works and Effects.International and intercultural aspects.] Edited by Svenja Blume,Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Angelika Nix.Astrid Lindgren – Werk und Wirkung. Internationale und interkulturelle Aspekte. [AstridLindgren – Works and Effects. International and intercultural aspects.] Edited by SvenjaBlume, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Angelika Nix. Frankfurt Am Main: Peter Lang,2009. 324 pages. € 52,8 (paperback).This volume is a collection of sixteen essays that trace the reception of Astrid Lindgren’sworks both in a Scandinavian and in a broader international (mainly European) context. Thearticles adopt different scholarly perspectives in order to shed light on this reception. As theeditors mention in the introduction, surprisingly little academic attention has been devoted tothe international and intercultural reception of Lindgren’s works, in spite of the fact that shehas been so widely translated, read and studied. The book is divided into four thematicparts. Most of the essays are written in German, with the exception of two contributions inEnglish, by Ulf Boëthius and Eva-Maria Metcalf.The first part of Astrid Lindgren – Werk und Wirkung deals with Lindgren’s reception inScandinavia. Angelika Nix considers Pippi Longstocking within the literary context of the“modern breakthrough” or “second Golden Age,” which occurred in Swedish children’sliterature in the mid-1940s. Claus Esmann Andersen starts from Hans Christian Andersen’sromantic concept of children’s courageous attitude towards death to interpret The BrothersLionheart. Ulf Boëthius considers Pippi Longstocking as a primal orphan figure and analysesthis character with respect to the social context in which it was created: the public debate onwild youth and bad children.The main focus of the contributions in the second and most elaborate part of the book is thetranslation and international reception of Lindgren’s work. Astrid Surmatz focuses onpolitical aspects in the books and antifascist and antiracist interpretations, which she mainlyillustrates with examples from the translations of Pippi Longstocking. Svenja Blumecontrasts the positive reactions to Pippi in Sweden, where she was considered to embodythe new ideas on “free upbringing,” with the negative reception in France, where the bookwas completely misunderstood and attempts were made to socialize Pippi. Caroline Roederanalyses excerpts from the archives of the DDR Book Licensing Council in order to studythe reception of Pippi Longstocking, Mio, my Son, Karlsson-on-the-Roof and Ronia theRobber’s Daughter. She shows that the council hardly used any literary criteria for theselection of books, but merely took into account the author’s and the work’s political andideological ideas. In the next article, Rolf Annas considers the influence of Apartheid and therelated cultural context (a time when African books were scarcely read and foreign textsreceived with open arms) on the distribution of Pippi Longstocking amongst differentdemographic groups in South Africa. In order to explain the popularity of Pippi in the US,Eva-Maria Metcalf confronts her with traditional female heroines, such as Mary Lennox (TheSecret Garden), Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) and Judy Abbot (Daddy-Long-Legs).Next, Tihomir Engler, Tamara Turza-Bogdan and Krunslav Mikulan analyse the effect of thepolitical situation and modernisation in the former Yugoslavian republics on the reception ofAstrid Lindgren’s books. They argue that varied readings of Pippi Longstocking (either asentertainment or as a means for social criticism) have allowed for the book to become afixed part of the national children’s canon. Finally, Mare Müürsepp looks into the reasons forthe enormous popularity and influence of Lindgren in Estonia.Part Three is dedicated to the interaction between Lindgren and other well-known children’sbooks authors, resulting in several highly interesting contributions. Gina Weinkauffcompares her to the Italian writer Gianni Rodari. Both of them are classic authors, yet onlythe former succeeded in breaking through in Germany. Weinkauff traces this discrepancyback to the traditional crooked relationship between Northern and Southern Europeans’popularity in Germany—Scandinavian literature is usually received more positively thanbooks from Southern Europe. Kirsten Waterstraat compares different aspects of Lindgren’sauthorship (such as biography, childhood images, contents and reception) to the Dutchauthor Annie M.G. Schmidt in order to question the common parallels drawn between thetwo writers. Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer discusses the huge impact on the concept ofpicture books that Lindgren and Anna Riwkin-Brick had with their innovative photo books.In the fourth and final part, Astrid Lindgren’s writings are scrutinized from a literarypedagogical perspective. Sonja Müller gives a survey of how German criticism on PippiLongstocking made a spectacular turn in the 1950s as the “Theory of the ‘good children’sbook’” (253) gained ground. In the penultimate essay, Reinert Tabbert studies Lindgren’spresence in German schools. Finally, in one of the most appealing essays in this volume,Konstanze Jung refutes the proposition that Pippi Longstocking is a racist book byhighlighting the underlying social criticism.Although the volume consists of sixteen different essays, it is not hard to establish a senseof coherence when reading it. The contributors clearly constitute a (mainly German) networkof scholars who regularly refer to each other’s writings. Interestingly enough, they oftendepart from a similar starting point but somehow manage to elaborate on the subject in anentirely different way, thus ending up with quite divergent findings. The ideas on educationphrased by Bertrand Russell, Ellen Key and A.S. Neill, for example, are often used to provedifferent points. Another example are Surmatz’ and Jung’s different approaches to thepolitical (in particular racist) undercurrent in Pippi Longstocking. Whereas Surmatz pointsout that various passages from the books are problematic when viewed from a postcolonialperspective, Jung tries to prove that the books are rather critical of the society in whichLindgren wrote them.In being so multifaceted, the volume allows for each reader to find something of personalinterest—either with regard to method or to contents. The various outcomes invest thecollection with a sense of versatility which can be said to mirror Lindgren’s ownmany-sidedness. The overall style used in this volume is a highly academic German andsome of the contributions prove to be rather difficult to read. It is therefore not easilyaccessible for the uninformed reader, but it is certainly a must-read for any scholarinterested in the international impact of Astrid Lindgren’s authorship. Moreover, AstridLindgren – Werk und Wirkung introduces the reader to perspectives on children’s literaturein a variety of countries, and offers useful tools for studying the reception of other authors inan international context.Sara Van den BosscheGhent University, Belgium>join IRSCLcontact ussitemap mapaboutfrom the presidentconferencesreviewsfor membersIRCLresourcesarchiveIRSCL Reviews http://www.irscl.com/review_werk_and_wirking.html1 van 2 17/03/2010 11:30© international research society for children's literature 2008IRSCL Reviews http://www.irscl.com/review_werk_and_wirking.html2 van 2 17/03/2010 11:30

Review "Astrid Lindgren – Werk und Wirkung. Internationale und interkulturelle Aspekte"

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Review "Astrid Lindgren – Werk und Wirkung. Internationale und interkulturelle Aspekte"

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