Cultural Perspectives on Sweets in Childrens Literature and Media

Cultural Perspectives on Sweets in Children's Literature and Media creates a kaleidoscope of the various functions of sweets and their significance for children's culture, thus providing an overview of the diversity of the subject.

Our language is full of 'sweet' terms to describe situations ('a bittersweet moment'), things ('popcorn brain'), behaviour ('to have a sweet tooth'), or even loved ones ('sweety', 'sweetheart', 'honey') that are originally not linked to food. What seems to be common to almost all cultures, is reflected in the fact that we humans are born with a taste for sweets, and that sweets have shaped our cultures and our language. This has also been reflected in children's literature and media. This is the starting point for this invaluable collection of essays, which deals specifically with sweets and the spectrum of hedonistic and regulated indulgence in different cultures and media for children. The contributions analyse classics of children's literature, but also more recent texts and other media such as magazines, films, television programmes and computer games. Cultural Perspectives on Sweets in Children's Literature and Media creates a kaleidoscope of the various functions of sweets and their significance for children's culture, thus providing an overview of the diversity of the subject.

Autorentext

Sabine Planka, Dr. phil., works as an academic librarian at the Martin-Opitz-Library (Herne, Germany) in the field of public relations, event management and project management, and as a visiting lecturer at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld, Germany) in the field of children's literature. Her research particularly focuses on children's literature, cookbook literature, and literary food studies. She is also interested in aspects of space and gender theory, and she works in the field of film studies. Latest publications include, for example, "What and How Will We Eat in Future? Food Culture, Food System, and Food Memory in Cli-fi Novels for Young Adults" (2024, together with Corina Löwe), and "Meet to Eat. The Restaurant as Narrative Setting in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) and The Fisher King (1991)" in A Critical Companion to Terry Gilliam (2023) edited Sabine Planka, Philip van der Merwe, and Ian Bekker.

Corina Löwe, PhD, is Senior Associate Professor of German in the Department of Languages at Linnaeus University, Sweden. After her dissertation on East German children's crime fiction (2011), she has continued her research on 20th- and 21st-century children's literature, East German children's literature, intermediality, and didactics of literature and language teaching. Together with Sabine Planka, she researches aspects of food and nutrition in children's media. Her latest publication is an anthology of girls' literature: "Flickor som löser gåtor. I flickdetektivernas värld" (In Flickboken & flickors läsning. Flickskapande nu och då, edited by Helene Ehriander and Corina Löwe, 2022) and "Power! No Doubt About It. Power Structures in Swedish Crime Fiction for Children" in Astrid Lindgren's Works (2021), edited by Helene Ehriander.

Klappentext

Cultural Perspectives on Sweets in Children's Literature and Media creates a kaleidoscope of the various functions of sweets and their significance for children's culture, thus providing an overview of the diversity of the subject.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors

Sweets in Children's Literature and Media: A Short Introduction into a Sweet and Delicious Topic
CORINA LÖWE AND SABINE PLANKA

PART I
Sweets as an Expression of Culture and Cultural Attitudes as well as National Cuisines

1 Sugar - A Substance Between Health, Temptation, and Moral in German Dolls' and Children's Cookbooks from the 19th to 21st Century
SABINE PLANKA

2 'A Cookie Is a Sometime Food'. Cookie Monster and the Politics of Children's Health on Sesame Street ABBY WHITAKER

3 Sugar Magic: Australian Children's Literature, Sweets, and National Identity
PAUL VENZO

4 'We Do All This to Celebrate the Beauty of Life and Death Rather than Mourn It': Sugary Skulls, Pan de Muerto, and the Context of Mexican Dia de Muertos in Children's Books
SABINE PLANKA

5 Sweet Treats and Cultural Commentary in Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and Spirited Away (2001)
NERMIN KARADEMIR

PART II
Sweets as Key Moments for the Development of Characters and Interpersonal Relationships in Children's Media

6 Swallowed Tears and Ice Cream: Sweets and the Lonely Child in East German Children's Literature
CORINA LÖWE

7 The Emancipatory Milkshake: Sweets in a Swedish Girls' Magazine
KRISTINA ÖHMAN

8 "Blond, Pink, and Porky": The Dehumanisation of

Fat Characters Eating Sweets in British 20th-Century Children's Book Classics
ÅSA WARNQVIST AND MIA ÖSTERLUND

PART III

Sweets in Children's Literature and Media as Symbols and Metaphors

9 Tailor-Made Pastries in La signorina Euforbia: Food Pedagogy in Italian Pre-Teens' Literature
SIMONA DI MARTINO

10 The Sweet Temptations of Fairy Tales: Exploring the Symbolic Role of Sweets
ARTEMIS PAPAILIA

11 "These Creatures Are Not Just Delightful, They're Delicious": The Cultural Meaning of the Trolls as Sweets in DreamWorks' Trolls (2016)
PHILIP VAN DER MERWE

12 To Eat and/or Be Eaten: A Yummy Guide with Zombies Inside
COREY WHITLEY, DANIEL IHRMARK, AND JOHAN NILSSON

Index