Instructive Literature within the Contemporary Czech Prose for Children and Young Adults Cover Image

Návodná literatura v tvorbě Ivony Březinové
Instructive Literature within the Contemporary Czech Prose for Children and Young Adults

Author(s): Milena Šubrtová
Subject(s): Short Story, Czech Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: The contemporary Czech prose for children and youth; instructive or auxiliary literature; “literature of questions and answers”;

Summary/Abstract: Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Czech literature for children and young adults has been witnessing the development of the instructive (auxiliary) literature. This kind of literature, which appeared abroad in the 1960s, may be characterized as “the literature of questions and answers”, i.e. literature motivating children to consider the given topic – mostly an ethical one – and giving them, at the same time, an answer in the form of an instruction. In Czech literature for children and youth, Ivona Březinová (1964) may be considered as an innovator in this genre. Her literary production is exclusively related to children and youth. Instructive literature appears as a special genre, invariant in her production, both in author’s fairy-tales, realistic stories from children’s lives and proses with a girl as the main character. As an experienced author, she focuses on certain problems, such as drug addiction, gambling, and mental anorexia or Alzheimer disease. Her primary aim is to arouse the readers’ interest in these problems, to inform them and influence their education.

  • Issue Year: 12/2009
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 117-122
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Czech