Føroyskar barnabókmentir - Søguligt umhvarv og greiningar (Faroese children’s literature - Historical framework and analyses)

Turið Sigurðardóttir has taught, studied, written articles about and reviewed children’s literature. This book

• describes the past century’s framework for Faroese children’s literature
• analyses a selection of old and new Faroese children’s literature, -stories and -songs.

Faroese children’s literature was born shortly after 1900, when most of the Faroese population lived out in the villages, and most children’s stories and children’s songs were about village children. Setting and topic did not vary much, despite the development of villages and the change in daily life for most, from village life to a more metropolitan way of life. This resulted in the stories becoming more and more nostalgic.

This changed in the 1970s: Now, stories could be set in Tórshavn, and the protagonist could be a girl. The style remained realistic, but modernity had entered the picture, and it was critically assessed.

The realistic narration style lost its popularity during the 1990s, when magic- or fantasy stories emerged on the Faroese young adult- and children’s literature stage, influenced by the international trend.

There are no books that just are. Where children’s literature stands out is in its target, the child, who is innocent, inexperienced, and other ‘in-‘ adjectives in contrast to the sender, the adult. This has for decades been the basis of wide-ranging debate and research, which has expanded our horizon regarding children’s literature.