Tales or Foolishness? Catalan books for children in the first third of the 20th century

Abstract

The first third of the 20th century was especially meaningful for
the production of children’s literature. Using the perhaps politically incorrect
term Foolishness, inspired by how the writer Carles Riba criticized children’s
literature, in this paper we propose what books for children during the first
third of the 20th century meant in Catalonia, and, specifically, we investigate
how children’s literature was understood then. With this purpose, we have
chosen 34 books for children, published between 1907 and 1940, taking into
account their consideration and diffusion. The results revealed an important
relevance of this children’s literature, which attracted the talents of reputable
writers and illustrators and, added to the priority of publishing houses for
producing quality books, brought institutional recognition and the strong
educational validation of the importance of children’s literature; all of this
with an evident and powerful cultural European influence.