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Children’s literature in times of war: ruptures and continuities

Svetlana Maslinskaia et Kirill Maslinsky

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1The study of the influence of social catastrophes on the literary process is a fairly traditional topic in literary history. In times of war, hardly any institutions of the nations involved are left untouched, and literature is no exception. There are two ways in which war can affect literary production and literary content. First, during a military conflict, one can expect a shift in the priorities and values of society and the state. Non-military expenses may be cut, propaganda becomes central, and writers and publishers have to respond to the change. Second, a war that has recently ended may form part of the national historical narrative. National literature often takes on the task of elaborating and broadcasting this narrative. With its typical focus on education, socialization, and indoctrination, children’s literature is especially apt to address both wartime and post-war challenges. It thus seems obvious that military conflicts, both external and internal, transform literature for children: how and in what respect such a transformation occurs remains unclear.

2As much as we expect war to transform literature, we should not assume this transformation to be instant and complete, since literary forms and institutions have an inertia of their own, which absorbs some of the impact. All too often, the period leading up to war gradually forges an image of the enemy in public opinion and develops a language for describing him in a variety of journalistic and literary forms, until a public consensus emerges regarding the means and ends of the upcoming war. In this case, the “hot phase” of war merely intensifies the pre-established balance of power and sentiment towards the enemy: the “war” is not written up from scratch. A similar continuity may also be characteristic of post-war periods. The gradual evolution of literary forms, ideas and institutions before the start of military operations and the rethinking and reassessment of ideas and the restructuring of institutions after the end of the “hot phase” of war are observed in historical data, as is to be expected. By acknowledging both the significant effect of war on literature and the continuity of literary institutions, a strong methodological basis for the study of the literary process in the war period can be built.

  • 1 Blanca-Ana Roig, Veljka Ruzicka Kenfel, The Representations of the Spanish Civil War in European ch (...)

3Existing studies of children’s literature have predominantly considered the problems of representing war as a past historical event. Arguably, post-war literary representations of war are an extensive phenomenon, and have definitely attracted much research attention. When working with representations of war in children’s literature, researchers focus primarily on images of heroes, enemies and victims of war. Dozens of monographs and articles revolve around these topics. In most cases, their subject is post-war artistic reflection, undertaken with the aim of conveying public consensus in assessing the past war1.

  • 2 Kate Agnew, Geoff Fox, Children at War: From the First World War to the Gulf, Softcover, London, Co (...)
  • 3 Mathilde Lévêque, Écrire pour la jeunesse en France et en Allemagne dans l’entre-deux-guerres, Renn (...)
  • 4 Julia Benner, Federkrieg: Kinder- und Jugendliteraturgegen den Nationalsozialismus 1933-1945, Götti (...)

4Wartime transformation of children’s literature is studied only sporadically and is less well understood. The first question posed here is: how much did the content of children’s literature change during wars, and in what ways? Indeed, most of the research on the content of wartime children’s literature discusses its propaganda potential2. However, some studies focusing on the entire body of children’s literature published during a period of war have shown that its content could be far distinct from pure military propaganda3. The problem of wartime censorship has also received some attention4.

  • 5 For a rare example, see Matthew Grenby, “‘Surely there is no British boy or girl who has not heard (...)

5Research interest in propaganda has defined a somewhat narrow spectrum of wartime situations that have come into focus. These are mainly major inter-state military conflicts of the previous century, when readership among children was already well established, and the stakes of state propaganda were high. In contrast, there are practically no studies addressing children’s literature during local wars, or conflicts prior to the 20th century5.

6In particular, attention to pre-war developments in studies of wartime children’s literature is frustratingly scarce. On the one hand, these periods are described as “non-war” periods, in which literature, including children’s literature, is assumed to develop according to its own internal literary laws, and to be determined by such phenomena as fashion and experiment. The latter regulate the balance between tradition and innovation, while the plots, images, and works of foreign children’s literature are adapted with varying intensity. On the other hand, the “natural” literary process cannot exist in a vacuum; definitions of “us” and “others” are constantly being produced in society, and nurture the substantive and aesthetic features of the conflict narrative. Depending on political regimes, this narrative may become the basis for social consensus (totalitarian societies), or it may remain marginal (democratic societies). But when military action breaks out, the need for public consensus becomes critical and literature begins to perform the functions of consolidating society, becoming, in essence, an instrument of propaganda for the concept of war.

7The contributing authors in this special issue of Strenæ focus on the transition of children’s literature from peacetime to wartime, striving to identify the moment when the decisive breakdown of the established configuration of content and forms of literature takes place. The cases discussed in the articles by Léon de Perrot, Manuela Di Franco, and Eva Van de Wiele illustrate the intricate balance between continuity and change. Despite the obvious transformative effect of war, in some respects the literary process for children turns out to be quite stable. The propagandistic effects only touch the surface of literary form, resulting in nothing more than some cosmetic alterations. In contrast, more profound changes occur in the relationship between literary producers and their imagined readership, resulting in shifting forms of literary communication with readers.

  • 6 For other areas and periods, see Laurence Olivier-Messonnier, Guerre et littérature de jeunesse, 19 (...)

8Léon de Perrot’s analysis of the publishing industry during the Croatian War of Independence demonstrates how children’s literature publishing responded to the impact of the military conflict. Before its inception, the publishing processes and the book market functioned as part of the country’s peaceful everyday life. Publishing procedures were formed by the institutional inertia of the totalitarian regime in Socialist Yugoslavia. Notably, the administrative control of publishers by the ruling power manifested itself in the overall centralization of publishing and the segregation of publishing houses, so that educational literature and literature for leisure were printed by different publishers. During the hot phase of the military conflict, publishing houses came under the control of the new government, but their former managers remained at the helm. The editorial staff and contributing authors were also partially retained. Thus, only minimal wartime contributions to the institutional structure were to be seen: it turned out to be quite resistant to external challenges. As a result, the new wartime literature naturally borrowed genre forms, formulaic plots and template images that grew in the previous period of the development of children’s literature. The habitual propaganda tools of the Socialist era were harnessed to legitimize the new political regime that came to power during the military conflict. The inertia of literary tradition and book production was used to reinforce an essentialized representation of other nationalities in public imagination. Children’s literature was perceived here as a natural tool for the indoctrination of children into this updated system of values, rooted in the national conflicts of previous eras6.

  • 7 Mariella Colin, Les enfants de Mussolini. Littératures, livres, lectures d’enfance et de jeunesse s (...)

9The situation with children’s periodicals in France and Italy during the Second World War is somewhat similar in institutional terms7. Beginning in 1934, the Nerbini publishing house began to publish American comics in French (Le journal de Mickey) and Italian (L’Avventuroso) translations. The fashion for comics was growing and was capturing the book market and the attention of young readers. With the strengthening of censorship under the Mussolini regime in 1938 and the Nazi invasion of France in the summer of 1940, the situation changed, but not in the radical way that might have been anticipated. In both cases, the same editors and the same authors remained involved in the production of magazines. The periodicals were in turmoil, circulation changed, paper and printing deteriorated, but they continued to appear under the new conditions. However, the content of the publications was another matter: the fascist regimes banned American comics with their adventurous plots and individualistic values. Both Italian and French publishers adapted themselves to stay in business; they domesticated the stories’ characters, moved the action to their own countries, and showed the conflict between the Nazi regime and anti-fascists.

10As Manuela Di Franco shows, the conformist position of L’Avventuroso’s publishers was almost exclusively determined by their commercial interests. At a time of increased censorship, in order to save the magazine, they made a deal with the regime. But they lost readers who were not willing to buy exclusively propagandistic comics, where the action took place not in distant America, but at home in Italy. It remains unclear whether it was the propaganda or the fascist ideas that caused readers to reject the magazine. This rejection might have been caused by the imposition of “local flavor” and the diverse domestication of plots and heroes. Censorship in this case went against reader preferences, blocking the opportunity for them to get acquainted with the usual content of American comics. Infringement of the reader’s enjoyment of reading led to a drop in demand and stagnation of consumer activity. The publishers’ reaction – a covert return to pre-censorship content – was determined not by political opposition to the regime, but by commercial strategies for adapting to preferences of the readership. In effect, publishers were forced to return to satisfying reader demand.

11If in fascist Italy the publishing team was able to adapt existing templates to the new agenda, in France, their refusal to collaborate with the Pétain regime led to more dramatic consequences. Initially, Le journal de Mickey published in France underwent similar transformations in content. In her article, Eva Van de Wiele highlights the new concept of the addressee, which developed under the influence of war censorship. Before the war, the magazine included a section of children’s activities such as games and correspondence with readers; under the new wartime conditions, serious transformations took place. Correspondence and interactive tasks gave way to the promotion of sports, and then to the publication of entertaining mathematical problems. The latter did not imply the publication of children’s questions, answers, or any communication with the addressees. Under Pétain’s wartime authoritarian regime, the image of the addressee was completely transformed. Even the constructed image of individual readers was lost, and replaced by the general concept of a child who needs to be educated and subjected to propaganda. Communication with real readers through publishing their questions, letters, and poems in the pages of the magazine gave way to the ideological commitment of the sports section (training soldiers) and to the detached mentoring of the math section that imitated a friendly discussion of mathematical problems among fictional friends. This is an important change: the wartime regime could admit relationships between adults and children only as long as they embodied the hierarchical subordination of the latter to the former. The child therefore ceased to be a worthy interlocutor, an equal participant in communication, and a co-creator of contents for the magazine.

12The effects of propaganda on the content changes observed in Le journal de Mickey are not so obvious. The pressure to produce more propaganda involved cost savings: comics were kept and correspondence with children was cut. The replacement of interactive writing with informational writing is a typical example of the transformation of the content of children’s periodicals during the war. But as the children’s involvement in magazine production was reduced, they were thereby excluded from participation in propaganda content. The reasons that led to the suppression of children’s voices remain unclear. It might be the simple reflection of the Pétain régime’s political values: like any other autocracy, it did not accept dialogue with the addressees, only requiring their submission. On the other hand, the magazine’s staff might have stopped publishing children’s letters in order to protect children from the biased attention of the Nazi regime. Finally, the content changes might be explained by turnover in the editorial staff caused by mobilization. Here, and in many similar cases, it is very hard to locate the boundary between obedient submission, pragmatic adaptation, and covert resistance to wartime pressures.

13The issue ends with an essay by Nicholas Tucker, who shares his memories of reading as a child during World War II. A testimony from a reader’s point of view is crucial for understanding the history of children’s reading in times of war. Interestingly, Tucker’s essay echoes two major themes of the research articles discussed above. First, he emphasizes the continuity of what was available to children and what was being read by them when the war broke out. Once again this highlights the importance of paying attention to the pre-war children’s book market in order to understand the child reader’s wartime experience. Besides, the discussion in the essay of anti-fascist propaganda in children’s books highlights a simple yet substantial impression produced by the propagandistic image of the enemy: that he’s stupid and easy to defeat. The stupefying contrast with the image of real atrocities committed by Nazis helps recognize the significance of what children’s literature is silent about during the war. The stability of the boundaries of acceptable content for children is probably one more idea that studying wartime children’s literature may help us appreciate.

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Notes

1 Blanca-Ana Roig, Veljka Ruzicka Kenfel, The Representations of the Spanish Civil War in European children’s literature (1975-2008), Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Edition, 2014 ; Eléonore Hamaide, La Shoah en mots et en images. De Perec à la littérature de jeunesse, Rouen, PURH, 2024 ; James Marten (ed.), Children and Youth during the Civil War Era, New York, London, NYU Press, 2012 (online edition: 2016) ; Fengxia Tan, Claudia Nelson, “‘Can You Hear My Cry?’ Representing War and Trauma in Picturebooks for Peace from China, South Korea, and Japan”, International Research in Children’s Literature, vol. 15, n° 1, 2022, p. 1-14 ; Dafna Zur, “Textual and visual representations of the Korean War in North and South Korean Children’s Literature”, in: Rudiger Frank, James E. Hoare, Patrick Köllner, Susan Pares (ed.), Korea 2010: Politics, Economy, Society, Brill, 2010, p. 271–303.

2 Kate Agnew, Geoff Fox, Children at War: From the First World War to the Gulf, Softcover, London, Continuum, 2001 ; Michael Paris, Over the Top: The Great War and Juvenile Literature in Britain, Westport (CT), Praeger, 2004 ; J. Marten (ed.), Children and Youth during the Civil War Era, op. cit. ; Lissa Paul, Rosemary R. Johnston, Emma Short (dir.), Children’s Literature and Culture of the First World War, New York, Routledge, 2016 ; David Budgen, British Children’s Literature and the First World War: representations since 1914, London, Bloomsbury, 2018 ; Danielle Quéruel (ed.), La guerre, le livre et l’enfant, 1914-1918, Reims, ÉPUre, 2021 ; Yael Darr, “Nation Building and War Narratives for Children: War and Militarism in Hebrew 1940’s and 1950’s Children’s Literature”, Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, vol. 48, n° 4, 2012, p. 601-613.

3 Mathilde Lévêque, Écrire pour la jeunesse en France et en Allemagne dans l’entre-deux-guerres, Rennes, PUR, 2011 ; Elizabeth A. Galway, The Figure of the Child in WWI American, British, and Canadian Children’s Literature: Farmer, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, New York, Routledge, 2022.

4 Julia Benner, Federkrieg: Kinder- und Jugendliteraturgegen den Nationalsozialismus 1933-1945, Göttingen, Wallstein, 2015 ; Caterina Sinibaldi, “Between Censorship and Innovation: The Translation of American Comics during Italian Fascism”, New Readings, vol. 16, 2016, p. 1-21, DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/newreadings.24.

5 For a rare example, see Matthew Grenby, “‘Surely there is no British boy or girl who has not heard of the battle of Waterloo!’ War and Children’s Literature in the Age of Napoleon”, in: Elizabeth Goodenough, Andrea Immel (ed.), Under Fire: Childhood in The Shadow Of War, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2008, p. 39-57.

6 For other areas and periods, see Laurence Olivier-Messonnier, Guerre et littérature de jeunesse, 1913-1919 : analyse des dérives patriotiques dans les périodiques pour enfants, L’Harmattan, 2012 ; Bérénice Zunino, Die Mobilmachung der Kinder im Ersten Weltkrieg Kriegskultur und illustrierte Kriegskinderliteratur im Deutschen Kaiserreich (1911–1918), Berlin, Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag, 2019.

7 Mariella Colin, Les enfants de Mussolini. Littératures, livres, lectures d’enfance et de jeunesse sous le fascisme. De la Grande Guerre à la chute du régime, Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2010.

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Svetlana Maslinskaia et Kirill Maslinsky, « Children’s literature in times of war: ruptures and continuities »Strenæ [En ligne], 25 | 2024, mis en ligne le 01 novembre 2024, consulté le 15 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/strenae/11458 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/130th

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Auteurs

Svetlana Maslinskaia

ILCEA4, Université Grenoble Alpes

Kirill Maslinsky

INALCO, Paris

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