Children and teenagers in popular culture – academic conference

„Trickster” Association and the Lower Silesian Public Library of Tadeusz Mikulski would like to invite you to a Polish academic conference „Children and teenagers in popular culture” which will take place on 22-23 June in Wrocław.

The concept of literary circulation present in Polish literary studies, treated as categories highlighted above all on the basis of the group they are addressed to, quite clearly emphasises literature for children and teenagers as a separate phenomenon. Also the idea of „the fourth literature” by Jerzy Cieślikowski is based on the assumption that texts directed to an addressee who is a child are formally, thematically and aesthetically closed group. However, we want to consider whether we can extend this category by analysing texts which are located on the boundary of different circulations.

Violetta Wróblewska notices that „popular literature for children, which actually exists, is an element of popular culture and often arises because of it” – guided by these words we would like to draw attention to the relationship between culture texts directed to juvenile addressee and the texts created and functioning as part of popular culture. How do vampires, zombies, werewolves and other horror figures function in children’s literature? Why is Frozen so popular among children? What is the phenomenon of Disney stars? What makes children laugh in Shrek? Who is Monster High for? What distinguishes detective stories and horrors for juveniles? We are interested in answers to questions which derive directly from the belief that children should be treated as important and fully-fledged participants of popular culture.

The conference will be interdisciplinary in nature. We would like to invite literature, film, media and culture researchers, educators, culture anthropologists, sociologists and philosophers.

Proposed reflection areas:
• the relationship between the popular culture and the literature for children and teenagers – boundaries, common spaces, separate spaces,
• writing strategies in literature for young adults,
• children and teenagers as protagonists of culture texts,
• genres of literature for children and teenagers (genre realisation of detective fiction, horror novel, romance, etc.),
• young people in the world of computer games,
• the latest trends in literature for children and young adults,
• the child in a world of merchandising, a child as a fan,
• the strategy of double encoding in culture texts,
• adaptations, renarrations and retellings of classic texts
• contemporary films for children and young adults,
• strategies of promoting books and films for children,
• adult as the recipient of texts primarily aimed at children,
• child as the recipient of texts primarily aimed at adults,
• child as an active participant, creator and prosumer of popular culture.

Date: 22-23 June 2017

Place: Lower Silesian Public Library of Tadeusz Mikulski in Wrocław (Rynek 58)

Conference fee: PLN 200 (the price includes the cost of conference materials, coffee breaks and post-conference publication)

Submissions deadline: 10 May 2017 using the application form

Decision on being accepted: before 14 May 2017

Contact: kamila.kowalczyk@tricksterzy.pl

Estimated time of a lecture: 20 minutes

Admission for listeners – free

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