Our Mythical Childhood... : The Classics And Literature For Children And Young Adults

Our Mythical Childhood… 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 Our Mythical Childhood… The Classics and Literature for Children and Young Adults Edited by Katarzyna Marciniak LEIDEN | BOSTON 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, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. 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 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 Traditi