INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE « L’AUTRE DANS LA LITTÉRATURE DE JEUNESSE RUSSE »

This review reports on the international research conference « L’autre dans la littérature de jeunesse russe » (“The Other” in Russian Children’s Literature)held at the Clermont Auvergne University. The conference was organised by the Centre de Recherches sur les Littératures et la Sociopoétique (CELIS) and brought together specialists in children’s literature from Russia, France and Italy. Ten papers were presented in which the category of “Stranger/Other” was considered in the material of Russian children’s literature of different epochs and directions and placed in the context of contemporary world research on the agency of the child. The researchers focus on the works of individual authors (Arkady Gaidar), genres and subgenres of children’s literature (zoo fiction, fantasy, science fiction, non-fiction), historical and cultural phenomena (children’s books of “Russian abroad”), various aspects of representation of the “other” (corporality, category “fat / slim”), themes (perception of war in modern children’s literature), individual works (“Leto v Pionerskom Galstuke” (“Summer in a pioneer tie”) by Katerina Silvanova and Elena Malisova). The survey gives a brief summary of the presentations, draws attention to the variety of methods and approaches of the researchers, and characterizes the significance of the conference as a whole.