Reviews 2015
Potjehovi hologrami. Studije, eseji i kritike iz književnosti za djecu i mladež. [Holograms of Quest: articles, essays and reviews of children’s and young adult literature]
Potjehovi hologrami. Studije, eseji i kritike iz književnosti za djecu i mladež. [Holograms of Quest: articles, essays and reviews of children’s and young adult literature]. Diana Zalar. Zagreb: Alfa, 2014. 654 pages. 150 HRK (hardback).
Diana Zalar is one of Croatia’s leading researchers of children’s and YA literature and one of the most eminent experts on Croatian children’s and YA poetry and fantasy. Potjehovi hologrami (Holograms of Quest),1 the latest publication from this prolific and versatile scholar, is a compendium of thematically and generically diverse texts produced during the author’s 25-year-long academic career. Providing an extensive and insightful overview of a distinguished career in Croatian academia as well as presenting the many faces of Zalar – the researcher, the educator, the lecturer, the literary critic, the translator, the writer, the parent, the "common reader," the bibliophile – this eclectic collection covers a wide range of topics dealing with various aspects of Croatian and global children’s and YA literature, as well as children’s/YA culture in general. The book includes more than 100 articles; essays; reviews; transcripts of speeches given at book launches, round tables and similar occasions; and translations of children’s and YA poetry and fiction, all of which are organized into 10 thematic sections.
The first and most extensive section in the collection is dedicated to Croatian children’s writers; this discussion is continued in the second section, which further expands it by introducing an international dimension. Two texts within this section warrant special mention: an extensive article on Astrid Lindgren and an overview of translations of Croatian children’s literature and its reception abroad. Sections three, five and six contain translations of children’s poems, short stories and selections from longer prose works, from Slovenian (translated in cooperation with Vladimira Velički and Teodora Kučinac) and English. What is missing from these rather unexpected poetic and prose interludes in an otherwise scholarly compendium is some contextualization (what were the criteria for selecting the texts? what is the principle of their organisation within the sections?) and (in the case of section three) a list of sources for the texts. Section four deals with Croatian children’s poetry, while section seven discusses various issues related to picturebooks. In addition to reviews of Croatian and international picturebooks, this section contains a most welcome overview of the history and current state of picturebooks in Croatia. The final three sections of Zalar’s book move beyond the field of (children’s) literature and discuss radio plays, cultural manifestations (section eight), theatrical productions, animated films (section nine), attitudes of primary-school and university students towards reading in general and required reading in particular, the use of poetry in the classroom, the popularization of reading (section ten), etc. Zalar’s discussions of why children and young adults nowadays prefer the company of gaming consoles and computer screens to that of the printed page are a particularly interesting and thought-provoking part of the final section.
As this brief and inconclusive overview of the content of Zalar’s book demonstrates, Potjehovi hologrami is primarily characterized by an abundance of themes and plurality of approaches. The dense, though occasionally repetitive, volume not only covers some well-trodden ground (analyses of "classics" of children's literature) but also succeeds in creating new venues of research by discussing young authors who have so far received little scholarly attention. For this reason, many of the texts included in the collection are likely to serve as starting points for future research. The author should also be commended for her commitment to an international perspective, her erudition and the ease and clarity with which she presents her arguments.
As is often the case with collections such as this, the content is uneven and there is some fluctuation in the relevance of individual contributions. Though undoubtedly impressive, the wide range can seem overambitious at times and leave the reader with the feeling that the book might have benefited from a stricter editorial policy and more stringent selection criteria (some texts barely merit inclusion in their respective sections, especially in section ten). The organization of the material is also problematic: although the author maintains that thematic sections facilitate navigation among the large number of texts, the only way to find all the texts about a specific author or topic is to go through the entire lengthy list of contents. Unfortunately, the latter – being incomplete (entry 1.19 is missing; the titles of translated texts are not given) and even inaccurate (the subtitles in the list of contents often differ from those found in the actual texts) – is not entirely reliable either. Given the sheer number of topics, titles and authors discussed, as well as occasional thematic overlappings between sections, the collection would greatly benefit from an index of authors and titles.
Zalar’s engaging and fluent prose marked by an unabashed passion for books more than makes up for the volume’s structural problems. Substituting the often dry, jargon-ridden and highly objective academic prose with accessible language, everyday examples and personal reflections and anecdotes (especially prominent in her honest and enthusiastic book reviews), Zalar’s texts are likely to appeal to a broad audience. The wealth of topics discussed in Potjehovi hologrami, coupled with the author’s contagious enthusiasm for her subject matter, makes the collection not only an informative and stimulating read but also a most enjoyable one.
Nada Kujundžić
University of Turku, Finland
University of Zagreb, Croatia
Note
1Quest is the titular character in “How Quest Sought the Truth”, the opening story in Croatian author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s collection of fairy tales,Croatian Tales of Long Ago(1924, also translated asTales of Long Ago).
Works Cited
Brlić-Mažuranić, Ivana. Croatian Tales of Long Ago. Trans. Fanny S. Copeland. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1924.
Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject by Victoria Flanagan. Review by Noga Applebaum.
Henry James’s Enigmas: Turning the Screw of Eternity? by Jean Perrot. Review by Beata Williamson.
Pričanja o djetinjstvu. Život priča u svakodnevnoj komunikaciji [Narratives of childhood. Life of stories in everyday communication] by Jelena Marković. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin by Sue Short. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture edited by Karin Beeler and Stan Beeler. Review by Xavier Mínguez-López.
The Middle Ages in Children's Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Sara Van den Bossche.
Ad usum Delphini. O szkolnej edukacji literackiej – dawniej i dziś [Ad usum Delphini: On literary education in schools then and now] by Dorota Michułka. Review by Krystyna Zabawa.
Educational Institutions in Horror Film: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams by Andrew L. Grunzke. Review by Anna Arnman.
Pixar’s Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age by Shannon R. Wooden and Ken Gillam. Review by Mateusz Świetlicki.
U carstvu životinja. Animalističko čitanje hrvatskih dječjih časopisa [In the animal kingdom: An animalistic reading of Croatian childrenʼs magazines] by Ana Batinić. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento [Books that Made the Italians: Educational Publishers in Milan in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century] by Elisa Marazzi. Review by Katarzyna Biernacka-Licznar.
The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman edited by Joseph Abbruscato and Tanya Jones. Review by Terri Doughty.
Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives edited by Christine A. Jones and Jennifer Schacker. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales by Ann Schmiesing. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
British Children’s Poetry in the Romantic Era: Verse, Riddle, and Rhyme by Donelle Ruwe. Review by Morag Styles.
Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950 edited by Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith. Review by Blanka Grzegorczyk.
Children’s Games in the New Media Age: Childlore, Media and the Playground edited by Andrew Burn and Chris Richards. Review by Richard Shakeshaft.
Gospođi Alisinoj desnoj nozi. [Alice’s right foot] by Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović. Review by Ivana Mijić Nemet.
The Middle Ages in Children’s Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Ashley N. Reese.
Prstenovi koji se šire: junačka potraga u djelima J. R. R. Tolkiena [Widening rings: heroic quest in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien] by Petra Mrduljaš Doležal. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Child Saviours in English Fantasy Fiction for Children and Young Adults by Anne Klaus. Review by Catherine Posey.
Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television edited by Pauline Greenhill and Jill Terry Rudy. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Literary Conceptualizations of Growth: Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature by Roberta Seelinger Trites. Review by Marek Oziewicz.
Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris. Review by Susan Tan.
American Environmental Fiction, 1782-1847 by Matthew Wynn Sivils. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Fantasy and the Real World in British Children’s Literature: The Power of Story by Caroline Webb. Review by Karyn Huenemann.
Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction edited by Catherine Butler and Kimberley Reynolds. Review by Valerie Coghlan.
Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children’s Literature by Blanka Grzegorczyk. Review by Yasmine Motawy.
Virginity in Young Adult Literature After Twilight by Christine Seifert. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Ethics and Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Mills. Review by Anna Bugajska.
Researching Literacy Lives: Building Communities between Home and School by Teresa Cremin, Marilyn Mottram, Fiona M. Collins, Sacha Powell, and Rose Drury. Review by Sara K. Sterner.
Potjehovi hologrami. Studije, eseji i kritike iz književnosti za djecu i mladež. [Holograms of Quest: articles, essays and reviews of children’s and young adult literature] by Diana Zalar. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Picturebooks: Representation and Narration edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer. Review by Betsie van der Westhuizen.
Audacious Kids: The Classic American Children’s Story by Jerry Griswold. Review by Taraneh Matloob.
Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Sinners and Devious Delinquents by Lydia Kokkola. Review by Victoria Flanagan.
Children’s Literature and Learner Empowerment: Children and Teenagers in English Language Education by Janice Bland. Review by Victoria de Rijke.
