Vol. 46 (2020): Criticism & Interpretation

Children's and Youth Literature – Poetics, Language, History, Ethics

From its inception, Hebrew children's literature has played a key role in instilling the Hebrew language and in assimilating the values of nationalism and Zionism among a future generation. Our great writers and poets have written and still write for children: H.N. Bialik, Asher Barash, Avraham Shlonsky, Leah Goldberg, Natan Alterman, Tirza Atar, David Grossman and Meir Shalev are among the most prominent, but certainly not the only ones. Their literature for adults, as well as the study of children's literature, has not received its proper status in literature departments at universities.

In this issue, twelve articles were collected, each of which illuminates a unique angle of Hebrew and Jewish children's literature in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries , from poetic, linguistic, historical and ethical aspects. Together, an ensemble of research voices is formed, giving expression to the East and the West, to the Land of Israel and the Diaspora, to secularism and religiosity, which will make a significant contribution to the discourse and contemporary research on children's literature.