| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The objective of this project was to do foundational research on Canadian and Australian children's literature in order to reconstruct a history of Children's literature in English-speaking countries, because in the traditional history of English and American children's literature, Canada and Australia have been regarded as periphery despite the fact that the two countries' children's literature in recent years have achieved a tremendous development. A concrete aim of this research was to prepare for the future publication of a new "History of Children's Literature in English-speaking countries".
The biggest result of this research is the publication of a book, Hajimete Manabu Eibei Jido Bungakushi (A History of English and American Children's Literature for Beginners), edited by the two researchers and published in 2004 by Minerva Shobo. The both researchers contributed "a history of Canadian children's literature" (Katsura) and "a history of Australian and New Zealand Children's liter
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ature" (Muta). The importance of this book lies in the fact that both Canadian and Australian children's literature are placed as independent histories and genres on the same level as English and American children's literature. This objective was highly regarded in a book review ‘From "English and American" children's literature to the children's literature in "English-speaking countries" : in Eigo Seinen (May issue of 2004) and others.
A chronological and substantial list of major works in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand compiled in the same book is another outcome of this research.
The other research results are "Contemporary Canadian Children's Literature" (Katsura, 2004), "Toward the construction of a Database of Canadian Picture Books" (Katsura, 2005), "The Development of English and American Picture Books" (Katsura, 2006), the publication of a book, The Golden Age of English and American Children's Literature (Minerva Shobo, 2005) edited by Katsura, and two articles by Muta on Andrew Lang who played an important role to connect fairy tales and anthropological studies. The latter of the following articles, "Fairy Tales and Anthropology" (Muta, 2005) and "Natsume Soseki and Andrew Lang : Their Interpretations of the Supernatural" (Muta, 2004) is based on Muta's paper presented at a conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (Canberra, 2004).
One of the findings during this research is the recent phenomenon of some New Zealand works and authors to be categorized as both Australian and New Zealand children's literature. We therefore found it necessary to include New Zealand children's literature in our research for a full and comprehensive history of Australian children's literature. In this regard the outcome of Katsura's research on Canadian picture books and Muta's on Australian and New Zealand picture books will be published in a book, Tanoshiku Yomeru Eibei Ehon (A Guide to English and American Picture Books) by Minerva Shobo in 2006 (in press). Less
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