CFP. Issue 30. Сriticism and censorship of children’s literature
Dear colleagues,
we are pleased to announce that 30th issue of Children’s Readings will be devoted to research on the criticism and censorship of children’s literature.
Contemporary public debates surrounding children’s books prompt a renewed examination of several key questions. What are the historical roots of censorship practices and critical discourse in the field of children’s literature? Which professional and non-professional forms of criticism have prevailed in different historical periods? What rhetorical and argumentative strategies do critics use to influence authors, publishers, and audiences? The established forms of criticism are well known: public letters of denunciation, recommendation or prohibition lists, and evaluative reviews. To what extent do they persist, and in what ways have they been transformed over time? How can the effectiveness of literary criticism be assessed?
We are also interested in the responses of the publishing industry to criticism and censorship demands across various institutional contexts: whether children’s literature functions within a centralized (centripetal) literary production system or within a polycentric infrastructure of creation and distribution. Particular attention may be paid to identifying the institutional and discursive “locations” in which censorship directives and critical statements emerge.
Our aim is to identify patterns in the historical evolution of critics and censors of children’s literature, and to evaluate retrospectively which forms of critical expression and censorship practices reflect changing public and professional conceptions of children’s literature and its social purpose, and which, by contrast, signal moments of stagnation.
We invite contributors to reflect on, but not limit themselves to, the following topics:
• concepts of “children’s literature criticism” in professional and non-professional contexts;
• the role of criticism and responses to it in the formation of individual and collective identities;
• pedagogical, philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic justifications for criticism among specific groups (parents, teachers, officials, writers, publishers, librarians, etc.);
• the instrumentalization of criticism by governmental, public, and professional actors;
• the ideologization of literary criticism;
• motivations for individual participation in the production of critical texts or censorship practices (approval and prohibition);
• channels and genres used to address authorities at various levels regarding the quality of children’s literature;
• the terminology of criticism and censorship and its historical transformations;
• the development of specific critical and censorial genres, including internal and public reviews, feuilletons, letters to newspapers, lists of recommended or prohibited literature, internal publishing correspondence, and book reviews;
• argumentative strategies in the criticism of children’s literary works and publications;
• polemical techniques and rhetorical formulas used to produce emotionally charged and evaluative judgments;
• the place of children’s literature criticism in the press and in public life.
We look forward to your contributions and to a productive scholarly discussion.
Please inform colleagues who may be interested in these topics.
In addition to submitting articles on the given topics, we welcome materials for the journal's REVIEWS and CONFERENCES sections.
Our journal's website: http://detskie-chtenia.ru
Please send proposed articles to the editorial board: detskie.chtenia@gmail.com
Article formatting requirements: http://detskie-chtenia.ru/index.php/journal/about/submissions
Article length: within 40,000 characters.
Language of your submission: English or Russian.
Deadline for article submission - July 1, 2026
The issue will be published in December 2026.
We invite you to collaborate,
DCh Editorial Board
