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Representations of Religion and Culture in Children’s Literature |
87www.jrfm.eu
2018, 4/1, 81–99
identities. Where are religion and mi-
gration mediated? How are spaces
portrayed? Which spaces are meeting
places; which spaces illustrate foreign
places?
Most of the stories are not set in
Germany explicitly, but the use of
the German language, the narrative
perspective evident, for example, in
“the Chinese are celebrating spring
festival”20 and the description of the
environment suggest Germany or
another German-speaking country.
In particular, the illustrations show
scenes commonplace in Germany.
Most of the stories about migration
and religion are set in a school or a nursery school (fig. 2), meeting places where
children with diverse cultural, religious and national backgrounds come togeth-
er. In addition, children who represent foreign identities often invite figures
who represent locals into their private living environment to make the latter
familiar with specific cultural practices such as festivities and customs.
REPRESENTATION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
Characters are central elements of the narrations and acutely important for
analysis of own and foreign identities. Readers identify with figures who me-
diate sympathy and antipathy as well as world-views. The embodiment and
representation of characters has a great impact on how recipients understand
a story.21 Whereas one half of the narrations focuses on male characters, the
other half deals with female figures. The analysis indicates that gender affilia-
tions, roles and imagery are peripheral in children’s literature that addresses
religion and migration. In the representation of foreign identities, the figures of-
ten appear to be somewhat genderless. The focus on characteristics of foreign-
ers replaces a focus on the characteristics of gender – unlike in other children’s
literature – and constructs otherness by background, religion and nationality.
The representation of own and foreign identities depends crucially on visual
aspects. Nearly all the narrations show characters who represent own identities
with blonde or red hair. Foreign identities are illustrated by figures with dark
brown or black hair and a dark complexion. Although relatively few people are
20 Yu-Dembski 2016, n. pag., emphasis added.
21 See Van De Mieroop 2015, 412. Fig. 2: Spaces and settings in Yu-Dembski/
Leberer (illust.), Lili und das chinesische FrĂĽhÂ
lingsfest (n. pag.) © Carlsen Verlag GmbH,
Hamburg 2011.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 04/01
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 04/01
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2018
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 129
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM