Begegnungen von Jung und Alt in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur

Age is a central characteristic of literary characters. It determines their scope of action, their behavioral repertoire, their social relationships with others and much more. The category of age is particularly significant for children's and young adult literature: questions of dependencies, knowledge, experiences, memories and development can be negotiated via age constructions. Adults do not only appear as parents and teachers. They are also (great-)grandparents and older people in other social roles who become important counterparts for child and adolescent characters – e.g. in relation to existential topics such as illness and death. However, the topic has so far been underexposed in literary studies and literary didactics. This volume changes that: using relevant texts from the genres of picture books, children's and young adult novels and film, the authors focus on these diverse relationship constellations. The result is an important contribution to the exploration of current children's and youth media.