Our mythical childhood... : the classics and literature for children and young adults

540 Pages·2016·5.35 MB·English

by  Marciniak

Our Mythical Childhood…
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Metaforms
Studies in the Reception of
Classical Antiquity
Editors-in-Chief
Almut-Barbara Renger (Freie Universität Berlin)
Jon Solomon (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
John T. Hamilton (Harvard University)
Editorial Board
Kyriakos Demetriou (University of Cyprus)
Constanze Güthenke (Oxford University)
Miriam Leonard (University College London)
Mira Seo (Yale-nus College)
Volume 8
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/srca
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Our Mythical Childhood…
The Classics and Literature for Children
and Young Adults
Edited by
Katarzyna Marciniak
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Painting by Matylda Tracewska, Our Mythical Childhood (2012), © by Matylda
Tracewska, 2016.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016040215
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2212-9405
isbn 978-90-04-31342-2 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-33537-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Contents
List of Figures ix
Notes on Contributors x
What Is a Classic… for Children and Young Adults? 1
Katarzyna Marciniak
Part 1
In Search of Our Roots: Classical References as a Shaper of Young
Readers’ Identity
1 From Aesop to Asterix Latinus: A Survey of Latin Books for Children 29
Wilfried Stroh
2 Childhood Rhetorical Exercises of the Victor of Vienna 35
Barbara Milewska-Waźbińska
3 The Aftermath of Myth through the Lens of Walter Benjamin: Hermes in
J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and in Astrid Lindgren’s
Karlson on the Roof 44
Katarzyna Jerzak
4 A Latin Lesson for Bad Boys, or: Kipling’s Tale of the Enchanted Bird 55
Jerzy Axer
5 Laura Orvieto and the Classical Heritage in Italy before the Second
World War 65
Valentina Garulli
6 Saul Tchernichowsky’s Mythical Childhood: Homeric Allusions in the
Idyll “Elka’s Wedding” 111
Agata Grzybowska
7 Jadwiga Żylińska’s Fabulous Antiquity 120
Robert A. Sucharski
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vi Contents
8 A Child among the Ruins: Some Thoughts on Contemporary Modern
Greek Literature for Children 127
Przemysław Kordos
9 The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Polish Lexicography for
Children and Young Adults 143
Ewa Rudnicka
part 2
The Aesop Complex: The Transformations of Fables in Response
to Regional Challenges
10 Our Fabled Childhood: Reflections on the Unsuitability of Aesop to
Children 171
Edith Hall
11 A Gloss on Perspectives for the Study of African Literature versus
Greek and Oriental Traditions 183
Peter T. Simatei
12 Aesop’s Fables in Japanese Literature for Children: Classical Antiquity
and Japan 189
Beata Kubiak Ho-Chi
13 Vitalis the Fox: Remarks on the Early Reading Experience of a Future
Historian of Antiquity in Poland (1950s–1960s) 201
Adam Łukaszewicz
14 Aemulating Aesopus: Slovenian Fables and Fablers between Tradition
and Innovation 208
David Movrin
part 3
Daring the Darkness: Classical Antiquity as a Filter for Critical
Experiences
15 Armies of Children: War and Peace, Ancient History and Myth in
Children’s Books after World War One 221
Sheila Murnaghan and Deborah H. Roberts
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Contents vii
16 Classical Antiquity in Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union 241
Elena Ermolaeva
17 Katabasis “Down Under” in the Novels of Margaret Mahy and Maurice
Gee 256
Elizabeth Hale
18 ‘His Greek Materials’: Philip Pullman’s Use of Classical
Mythology 267
Owen Hodkinson
19 Orpheus and Eurydice: Reception of a Classical Myth in International
Children’s Literature 291
Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
part 4
New Hope: Classical References in the Mission of Preparing
Children to Strive for a Better Future
20 Greek Mythology in Israeli Children’s Literature 309
Lisa Maurice
21 Telemachus in Jeans: Adam Bahdaj’s Reception of the Myth about
Odysseus’s Son 333
Joanna Kłos
22 An Attempt on Theseus by Kir Bulychev: Travelling to Virtual
Antiquity 346
Hanna Paulouskaya
23 Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Its Productive Appropriation: The
Example of Harry Potter 362
Christine Walde
24 J.K. Rowling Exposes the World to Classical Antiquity 384
Elżbieta Olechowska
25 East, West, and Finding Yourself in Caroline Lawrence’s “Roman
Mysteries” 411
Helen Lovatt
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viii Contents
26 Create Your Own Mythology: Youngsters for Youngsters (and Oldsters)
in Mythological Fan Fiction 428
Katarzyna Marciniak
Bibliography 453
Index 509
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List of Figures
Part 1 Joanna Gębal, The Minotaur 28
2.1 A page of Jan Sobieski’s school notebook including notes on Cicero’s
oration Pro lege Manilia 40
2.2 A page of Jan Sobieski’s school essay Laus Athenarum 42
4.1 Leonard Raven-Hill, Mr. King 58
4.2 Tim Mason, Goldcrest—Regulus regulus (L.) 60
8.1 Przemysław Kordos, Mountain Biking in Sparta 129
8.2 Cover of Christos Boulotis’s Tο άγαλμα που κρύωνε [The statue that was
cold], illustrated by Foteini Stefanidi 133
8.3 Cover of Alki Zei’s H Αλίκη στη χώρα των μαρμάρων [Alice in Marble-
land], illustrated by Sofia Zarabouka 136
8.4 Cover of Kira Sinou’s and Eleni Hook-Apostolopoulou’s Tο χέρι στο βυθό
[The hand in the deep], illustrated by Orion Akomanis 139
9.1 The entry kolumna [column] in Maria Krajewska’s Mój pierwszy
prawdziwy słownik [My first real dictionary] 158
9.2 The entry podstawa [base] in Maria Krajewska’s Mój pierwszy prawdzi-
wy słownik [My first real dictionary] 158
9.3 The entry porozumienie [agreement] in Maria Krajewska’s Mój pierwszy
prawdziwy słownik [My first real dictionary] 159
Part 2 Aleksandra Bąk, Rara avis 170
12.1 Odekake Times Teruminkofu, The Race of a Hare and a Turtle, Toyosato
School, Shiga Prefecture 196
14.1 Fragments of “Mačka” [Cat] from Bosanske basni [Bosnian fables] by
Tomaž Lavrič 216
Part 3 Ewa Smyk, Between Scylla and Charybdis 220
15.1 World War i recruiting poster by James Montgomery Flagg 227
15.2 A woodcut by George Plank from an edition of The Hedgehog
by h.d. 239
16.1 Professor Salomo Luria (1891–1964) with his son Yakov Luria in the
1920s 245
16.2 Pages 20–21 from Salomo Luria’s Pismo grecheskogo malchika [A letter
from a Greek boy] 249
16.3 A page from Salomo Luria’s diary, the so-called “Cypriot Writing
Book” 253
18.1 Hephaistos Painter (?), The Death of Procris, red-figured column-krater,
ca. 460–430 bc 283
Part 4 Maja Abgarowicz, The Sirens 308
Bibliography Agnieszka Kuglasz, The Torment of Tantalus 451
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Notes on Contributors
Jerzy Axer
is a Classical scholar, a specialist in reception studies, a member of research
organisations the world over, president of the International Society for the His-
tory of Rhetoric in 1999–2001, and the author of roughly 500 publications (15
books). In 1991 he established the pioneering Centre for Studies on the Clas-
sical Tradition (obta) at the University of Warsaw—now one of the three
main units of the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” of which he became the founder
and its first dean, focusing on transdisciplinary research and cutting-edge ex-
periments in education. Prof. Axer heads the Collegium Artes Liberales at the
Faculty.
Elena Ermolaeva
is a Classical scholar, an associate professor at the Department of Classics at
Saint Petersburg State University; a representative of Russia in EUROCLAS-
SICA (vice-president, 2012–2015); her focus is on ancient Greek language, epic
and lyric poetry, parody, ancient scholarship, and the reception of Classics in
Russia.
Valentina Garulli
is a Classical scholar and an expert on Greek verse inscriptions, focusing on the
reception of Classics in Italian culture; she is a researcher at the Department of
Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, and is involved
in popularising Classical Antiquity for children.
Agata Grzybowska
a Ph.D. candidate, graduated from the College of Inter-Area Individual Studies
in the Humanities and Social Sciences (mish) with two ma degrees in Classics
and Hebrew Studies at the University of Warsaw.
Elizabeth Hale
is Senior Lecturer in English and Writing at the University of New England
(Australia). She works in collaboration with artists, writers, and digital educa-
tors to explore new ways of responding to fiction, and oversees a programme
of creative residencies at her University. She has published on classical recep-
tion in children’s and adults’ literature in Australasia and abroad, and most re-
cently is the editor of Maurice Gee: A Literary Companion. The Fiction for Young
Readers (Otago University Press, 2014). Her current research projects include a
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