Ameriška mladinska proza od začetkov do konca 19. stoletja

slovenian

1997

volume 24, issue 43

American literature    young adult literature    children's literature    prose 

Mariborska knjižnica

The first writings in prose intended for children appeared in the 17. century in New England and after the colony gained its political independence the endavours for the creation of a distinctive, national prose appeared. By the end of the 19. century, however, American prose for children had already firmly established itself and together with the prose for adults gained its first international tribute. The first children's book issued and printed in America was John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in Either England, Drawn from the Breasts of Both Testaments for Their Soul's Nourishment (1656). The texts which followed were all marked by puritanism what is true also for The New England Primer (1683), the dominant book for children in colonial times. It was basically a combined catehism and ABC and it its long life it adapted to social changes. At the beginning of the 19. century writing in the new spirit, no more directly influenced by the religious doctrine, and in the "American" way, was encouraged. Damuel Griswold Goodrich and Jacob Abbott made their name as writers for young readers turn to the literature for adults where they discovered writers as Washington Irving and J.F. Cooper. They both offered fantasy and adventure and some of their books soon passed into children's literature. Cooper's Leatherstockings Tales have remained one of the most outstanding literary achievements of the 19. century American literature. Children's literature gaining in its importance, some writers who normally wrote for adults, as for example Nathaniel Hawthorne, tried themselves in writing for the new reading public; some, on the other hand, wrote exclusively for young boys and girls. The latter group was more or less devided into men writers who wrote above all for boys, predominantly adventure story; and into women writers who devoted their work to girls, writing mostly family stories. Various types of the two genres appeared and found their best expression in the work of Mark Twain adn Louisa May Alcott. The adventures stories of the former and the family stories of the latter attracted a large reading public at home and abroad. Only Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, the most famous American novel of the century, won greater recognition. Due to its exceptional influence its position is unique adn it thus heads the American prose masterpieces presenting the nineteenth century contribution to the universal treasure fo children's literature.

21.06.2016