Summary
Abstract
SUMMARY
The 11 th issue of “Childrenʼs Readings” is devoted primarily to interaction of Russian culture and literature with cultures and literatures
of the countries widely understood as Eastern, as well as to certain features of development of childrenʼs literature and literature about children in China and Japan.
The block ARCHIVE consists of two articles written in 1950s and devoted to Chinese literature for children. The authors of these articles
are Boris Riftin and Iuri Osipov who were aspiring philologists-Orientalists at that time. Later, B. Riftin became a famous sinologist, a specialist in Chinese and Taiwan literature and folklore, and I. Osipov fo-
cused on the Thai language and culture and became the founder of the “Thai school” at the philological faculty of Leningrad (nowadays Saint
Petersburg) University.
A conversation between Lena Baibikova, the well-known interpreter from the Japanese language, Dmitry Iakovlev, the director of “Bum-
kniga”, publishing house specialized in original comic books, also the host of drawn stories festival “Bumfest”, and Ekaterina Riabova, chil-
dren’s Japanese literature (including graphic literature) translator was named “‘The shift moment’: Japanese comic books and Japanese chil-
dren’s literature in Russia”. According to this title, the conversation is devoted to the history, translation and distribution of Japanese graphic
literature in Russia and to peculiarities of its perception by the Russian audience.
The block RESEARCH AND MATERIALS in this issue contains texts of different genres united by a common theme.
The article “Vassilii Eroshenko, the Russian writer” by Anikeev Sergey and Takeda Akifumi analyzes the aspects of literary works of the
little-known in Russia symbolist writer Vassily Iakovlevich Eroshenko (1889-1952) and the perception of his heritage in Japanese and Russian
literary studies. The blind author, a passionate propagandist for Esperanto ideas, he left Russia in 1912, spent much of his life in Japan and
China, entered the circle of intellectuals in these countries, was a wellknown author of texts in Japanese and Esperanto and became the proto-
type of one of the heroes of Lu Xun. Primarily the article focuses on the Eroshenko’s contribution to the Japanese children’s literature.
Key words: Vassilii Eroshenko, biographical sketch, “douwa”-story, Akita Udzyaku, Ichiro Takasugi, Lu Xin.
The focus of the article “Japanese Picture Books Ehon: Revealing their Essence through Three Autoethnographic Essays” by Kseniia
Golovina, Liudmila Averianova and Anna Savinykh is ehon: picture books that are representative of Japanese children’s literature for in-
fants. The study consists of three autoethnographic essays that introduce the features of ehon, its range of functions, and the practices surround-
ing how picture books are experienced in Japan. The study examines how unity between text and image creates an enhanced visual effect
that translates to a rich emotional experience for the readers. The authors also discuss didactic role of ehon as it relates to emotional educa-
tion and the promotion of good habits and social skills.
Keywords: picture book, ehon, Japanese children’s literature, onomatopoeia, reading aloud, children’s salon, interactive book-reading,
didactics.
The article “Bin Sin and children’s literature of contemporary China” by Natalia Zakharova contains the translation of one part of the
book Letters to Little Readers (1926) by Chinese writer Bin Xin (1900–1999) who is considered as the founder of China’s modern children’s
literature. The publication is preceded by biographical notes about the author, a short commentary on her work, allowing to assess the degree
of innovation of the author, who combined the traditions of Eastern and Western literatures in her book.
Key words: Chinese literature of the 20th century, Bin Xin (Xie Bingxing), Letters to small readers, tradition and innovation
in literature.
The article “Russian literature in the Chinese school programme” by Li Linyin, Elena Markasova, Zhang Ruhan, Cao Yuting is devoted
to the “Russian school-knowledge” in China, and more specifically, the choice of works of Russian literature and forms of studying it in Chi-
nese schools. Russian literature was included in the Chinese school in 1920-e years and holds a stable position as texts of foreign literature
in the textbooks. It has foreign status, but is perceived as “spiritually closed”, knowledge of it is considered to be prestigious. Russian clas-
sics of the XIX–XX century is considered to be reputable definitely.“The textbook of Chinese language and literature” ( 文 ) means “the text-
book of Chinese literature”: school teaching methods for literature essentially differ in Chinese and Russian schools. The article describes the
distribution of Russian writers’works in classes and collected data on differences in the composition of texts by major publishing houses and
programs, lists the types of tasks in the classes. Key words: history of Russian literature, Russian literature in China,
Russian as a foreign language, teaching Russian literature to foreign audiences.
The article “China and the Chinese in the Russian Soviet children’s literature of 1920s — 1930s” by Maria Litovskaia and Yao Chengcheng
analyzes the dynamics of China’s and the Chinese people’s description in the Soviet children's literature of the 1920s and 1930s, it depicts pat-
terns in creating the image of the neighboring country, identifies the socialization tasks that were set and solved in the texts for children. It is
shown that the “literary” image of China, based on the “Chinoiserie” tradition, and propagandistic representation of China and the Chinese
not only complement each other, but also not always consistently diverge, which leads to the gap between the image of China as a revolu-
tionary country ready to throw off the “colonial chains” versus a motionless civilization, frozen in its exquisite splendor.
Key words: Russian children’s literature of 1920s — 1930s, the image of China in literature, N. Agnivtsev, A. Barto, G. Viatkin, B. Zhit-
kov, P. Iakovlev.
The history of the publication of the Bible’s retelling ed. by K. I. Chukovsky is restored in the article of Olga Simonova “‘The Ba-
bel Tower and other ancient legends’: history of edition” based on archival materials. O. Simonova cite unpublished correspondence of the
authors of the collection “The Babel Tower and other ancient legends”, including the unknown letters of K. I. Chukovsky. The approach of the
artist L. E. Feinberg to illustration of this book is elucidated. The edition was printed at the beginning of 1968, and in the end of that year
was destroyed; the prohibition of the book was provoked by the foreign policy situation.
Key words: retelling of the Bible for children, destroyed edition, publishing house “Detskaia literatura”, Kornei Chukovskii, Leonid Feinberg, illustration of children's books, correspondence.
The block of materials “Voices from Tianjin” has been prepared
with the participation of teachers of higher and secondary schools of this Chinese city. The essay by Marina Kostiukhina “Eastern Express of
Children's Literature”, which opens the block, is written by the author directly acquainted with the children's libraries of Tianjin. Professor of
the Tianjin Pedagogical University Yijin Li, who appears in this block also as a translator, devoted his essay to the topic “Ancient Chinese
thinkers about children’s reading”. The teacher of the secondary school Yuzhi Zhou in the essay “Reading of my childhood” shares memories
of his childhood years and compares his book preferences as a child with the choices of modern Chinese schoolchildren. Professor of Tian-
jin Pedagogical University Hao Rui, who worked for several years in Japan, tells about the organization of children's reading in this country,
drawing attention to the positive experience of the Japanese in the process of involving the younger generation to reading.
The two following articles are combined by the theme of reminiscences, penetrating from the adult context into the children’s text and
vice versa.
The article of Maria Akhmetova “Where ‘The Big Secret for a Small Company’ arises from (about reminiscences in one Soviet cartoon)” ex-
amines the cartoon Big Secret for a Small Company (1979, script and texts were written by Iunna Moritz, the cartoon was directed by Iulian
Kalisher). The paper reveals various literary and cultural reminiscences; the main attention is paid to the variation of the evangelical episode
of the three Christ’s temptations, which determines the plot and the system of images in the cartoon.
Key words: children’s poetry, Soviet animation, Yunna Moritz, Julian Kalisher, allusions, reminiscences, evangelic text in the modern
culture, symbols of animals.
The article by Marion Rutz “Children’s literature in writings of Timur Kibirov: the multifaced arguments of the post-modern discus-
sion” about values is devoted to the problem of “embedding” the experience of children's reading in the texts of a mature poet.
In the poems of the contemporary Russian poet Timur Kibirov (*1955) intertextuality is one of the most significant characteristics of his poetry. This article analyses the numerous references to children’s
literature up to 2009 and explores their conceptual functions. Referring to highly ideological texts for children, Kibirov’s early writing deconstructs Soviet mythology. In the later periods of his work, Russian and international children’s classics are, on the contrary, used to construct and legitimize the poet’s own ideological space. The manifesto poem “Just to read children’s books...” playfully elevates the meaning of children’s literature above the works of Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce.
Key words: Timur Kibirov; poetry; postmodernism; intertextuality;
“Neznaika”; A. S. Pushkin; Anton Makarenko; Kornei Chukovsky; “Kara-baras”; Hans Christian Andersen; C. S. Lewis.
The section is concluded by the essay of Irina Arzamastseva “‘Before’ the metaphysics of childhood”. The essay inspired by a series
of articles in the journal “Logos”, where the authors talk about the nature of the childhood, relying on personal memories, draws attention
to the problem of visibility / invisibility of childhood in culture, which, in the author’s opinion, became one of the reasons that prevents crea-
tion of the history of childhood.
Ekaterina Asonova in the permanent block CHILDREN’S BOOKS IN THE DOMAIN OF READING FOR ADULTS presents her views
on children's books written by Japanese writers and sharing her associations with books of Russian authors emerged while reading.
In the block REVIEWS Larissa Rudova comments on the publication of Ben Hellman’s book “Fairy Tales and True Stories of Russian
Literature” (New Literary Review, 2016).
In the block PRACTICE Yasko Tanaka, the head of the group “Bonfire” from Japan, is telling in her sketch “Children all over the world
may jump over bonfire!” about the activity of propagandists of Japanese children’s literature in Russia and children’s Russian literature
in modern Japan. This essay focuses on the history of establishment and development of the Japanese journal under the title “Kostior”, which means
“Bonfire” in Russian. Inspired by the distinguished tradition of Russian children’s literature, over the years the journal has introduced to the
Japanese readers many works by Russian writers, poets, illustrators, painters, and cartoon animators. The essay brings together the records
of memorable encounters the journal's editors have had with many Russian writers and the accounts of how “Kostior” has been disseminating
the knowledge of Russian culture in Japan.
The museum employee Marina Sokolovskaia writes about the concept of the exhibition organized by her at the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg — “Children’s 1990-s: magazine ‘Tramway’”.
