Seite - 86 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 04/01

86 | Verena Eberhardt www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 81–99 Six stories recount the everyday life of children from different cultures who live with us. There is laughter and food, celebration and singing everywhere. All children are curious and want to get to know each other. No matter if they are from Turkey, Syria, Africa, China or another place in the world … Strong storybook tales to look at and read aloud together.16 Beyond that, the publisher recommends the storybook to parents and educa- tors and states that it is “checked and accompanied by experts”.17 Some of the five authors have migration backgrounds themselves.18 “Stiftung Lesen”, a foundation that promotes literacy and reading skills, has recommended the storybook. The analysis of Lara Lustig und der liebe Gott and Starke Geschichten für alle Kinder dieser Welt focuses here on the representation of identity, culture and religion by means of diegesis and point of view, spaces and settings, character conception, culture and cultural imaginaries as well as faith and religion.19 DIEGESIS AND POINTS OF VIEW The narrative voice mediates between diegesis and the reader; it determines how the reader is made aware of characters, storylines and emotional atmos- pheres. The analysis of narrative positions reveals how the narrative voice con- structs closeness and distance as well as foreign elements and difference. The chapters in Lara Lustig und der liebe Gott illustrate how a schoolgirl be- comes acquainted with the religious and cultural traditions of her classmates from a homodiegetic perspective. Although the narrative voice – the school- girl – is a minor character in the storyline, the perspective generates a personal view. Pronouns like I and we provide insight into emotions and personal views. By contrast, Starke Geschichten für alle Kinder dieser Welt describes characters as well as their feelings and perceptions distantly, from a heterodiegetic per- spective. The internal focus on characters that represent own identities has an alienating effect. By means of narrative conceptions, texts construct interper- sonal perceptions on an intradiegetic level. SPACES AND SETTINGS A focus on spatial settings can illuminate the construction of difference in chil- dren’s literature and in particular the creation of own identities and foreign 16 See https://www.carlsen.de/presse/hardcover/lesemaus-sonderbaende-starke-geschichten- fuer-alle-kinder-dieser-welt/66761 [accessed 29 January 2018]. 17 See cover, Halberstam 2016. 18 See for example biographies of Agatha Ngonyani: http://www.agathangonyani.com/, Dagmar Yu- Dembski: http://www.bebraverlag.de/autoren/autor/257-dagmar-yu-dembski.html and Suleman Taufiq: http://www.nrw-kultur.de/de/programme/werkproben/autor_innen_2017_18/suleman_ taufiq/#/. 19 For narrative analysis in general see De Fina/Georgakopoulou 2015.