SOCIAL DEFECT AND PARTICULARITY IN ĐURĐICA STUHLREITER’S CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Abstract

The twenty-first century reader can observe several changes in children’s literature, especially in the so called “young adult” literature, since the term children’s is too narrow and inexplicit. The genres and topics undergo some transformations, the trends and pictorial approaches change dynamically. In order to raise the dilemma of the contemporary Hungarian and Vojvodinan Hungarian “border crossings”, the need for more frequent comparative outlook arises. This study examines problem centric and taboo smashing texts of a contemporary Croatian writer of books for children and youth. The novel Gašpar i prijatelji comes into limelight from among Đurđica Stuhlreiter’s books, centered on the metamorphosis of a hearing-impaired boy wrapped in silence, who takes refuge in the world of animals. The paper dwells on discourses about bravery, identity searching and problems of childhood or adult life, and also points to relevant issues in Hungarian literature.