Call for submissions of articles for a special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn (April 2008): Children's Literature in South Africa

South Africa is a multilingual and multicultural society in which its people are increasingly taking pride in the development of their own languages and cultural inheritance. Children's literature, and those involved with it, play an important role in creating positive changes in society. By sharing problems, challenges, solutions and successes with each other over a number of years now, a healthy discourse between role players working in the field is starting to develop, which holds the promise of many co-operative possibilities which could potentially yield a wealth of literary dividends. These endeavours are also supported by government policy.

Submissions are being solicited for a special issue on Children's Literature in South Africa, to be published in The Lion and the Unicorn in April 2008. Possible topics include issues related to: the production (e.g. oral storytellers, writers, illustrators, translators, publishers), marketing and distribution (e.g. publishers, agents, book suppliers), mediation (e.g. teachers/facilitators, parents, librarians, and the media - newspapers, radio, television) and reception (by toddlers, children and teenagers as listeners to, or readers of, stories, poetry, stage productions and film).

All topics regarding South African children's literature are welcome, including:
* Production of children's literature: topics and themes in children's literature, oral storytelling, the writing of stories, poems, drama/stage, publishing.
* Viewpoints with regard to the "needs" of the "market", "going with the global flow" and/or/but seeing writing as an act of resistance against globalization.
* Illustrations in children's books.
* The fusion of different genres and styles in writing and illustrating children's books.
* The influence of the literary content, style and other aspects of the systems of children's literature of different parts of the world on South African children's literature.
* Marketing and distribution: agents, bookshop industry.
* Mediation: reading stories and poems to children, children's theatre, facilitating literature for toddlers, children and adolescents in all phases of school life, bibliotherapy, narrative therapy
* Reception: needs and reading patterns of South African toddlers, children and adolescents, readers' response patterns.
* DEAR - Drop Everything and Read, Drop All And Read.
* Humour in children's literature.
* Liminal spaces in South African children's literature, e.g. the exchange of racial, cultural, linguistic and other cultural forms between and across the borders of different languages.
* The history/histories of children's literatures of the different and related South African languages and cultures - aspects of the bridging of difficult times and the development of children's literature within the broad liminal spaces where many South African languages meet.
* Comparative studies that read South African children's literatures in an international context.
* Commonalities and diversities between the language identities of the language groups in the broad South African language landscape, e.g. the commonalities and diversities between children's literature in Nguni-languages and children's literature in Sotho-languages.
* Commonalities and diversities between South Africa as multilingual country and other multilingual countries.
* The advancement of literature for toddlers, children and teenagers in all South African languages.

Deadline: 30 July 2007
Please send enquiries or complete manuscripts, using MLA style, double-spaced, between twenty-five and thirty pages in length (4000-5000 words), to preferably the following email address: Betsie.VanDerWesthuizen_at_nwu.ac.za or to the following address:
Prof Betsie van der Westhuizen
Vakgroep Afrikaans en Nederlands/ Subject Group Afrikaans and Dutch
Skool vir Tale/ School of Languages
Fakulteit Lettere en Wysbegeerte/ Faculty of Arts
Potchefstroomkampus/ Potchefstroom Campus
Noordwes-Universiteit/ North-West University
Privaatsak X6001/ Private Bag X6001
Potchefstroom
2520
Suid-Afrika / South Africa

Tel.: +27 18 2991491 or: 018 2991491
Faks/ Fax: +27 18 2991562 or: 018 2991562
E-pos/ Email: Betsie.VanDerWesthuizen_at_nwu.ac.za

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Received on Tue Nov 28 2006 - 20:35:07 EST