IN NIGHTMARE COUNTRY AND WONDERLAND: BOOK REVIEW OF: THE PHENOMENON OF VIRTUALITY: ABOUT THE TRANSITION BETWEEN WORLDS — BASED ON BOOKS, PLAYS AND FILMS THAT CHILDREN READ AND WATCHED IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH AND EARLY 21ST CENTURIES (2016)

Abstract

The review presents a cultural study by Alexandra Vasilkova “The phenomenon of virtuality: On the transition between worlds — based on books, plays and films that children read and watched in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries” (2016), dedicated to the motive of the transition between worlds in books and cinema and performances for children. The review describes the structure of the book, analyzes the tasks set by the author, points out problem areas, and assesses the potential for further work. The material for the book was the works of Antony Pogorelsky, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffman, Lewis Carroll, Maurice Maeterlinck, Alan Alexander Milne, Lyman Frank Baum, Alexander Volkov, Lev Kassil, Clive Staples Lewis, Neil Gaiman, Evgeny Klyuev, Andrey Zhvalevsky, Eugenia Pasternak, etc. The reviewer reveals how Alexandra Vasilkova, considering texts about travel to other worlds and parallel reality, related to the genre of literary fairy tales and fantasy, notes semantic similarities and finds borrowings from mythologies and religions. The author of the review notes the strengths and weaknesses of the study: a broad cultural context, a wide range of reader reviews and reflections, but at the same time the lack of balance between the subjective position and scientific methodology.

Keywords: soviet children’s literature, modern children’s literature, book adaptation, cinematic language, transition between the worlds