(English version below)
CLIC nodigt jullie graag uit voor de eerstvolgende WOLEC-sessie die plaatsvindt op dinsdag 18 maart van 11:00 tot ten laatste 12:30 in C3.06. Spreker Kayra Maes (VUB) zal een lezing geven met als titel: "Fostering Children's Agency Through Play and Care: The Childist Potential of Contemporary Black British Picture Books".
Kayra Maes behaalde een MA in Taal- en Letterkunde aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2022-2023) en een ManaMa in Literatuurwetenschappen aan de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2023-2025). Ze heeft eerder presentaties gegeven op internationale conferenties over Black British literatuur en kinderliteratuur. Kayra heeft een subsidieaanvraag ingediend bij het Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) voor een PhD-project over de representatie van zorg in hedendaagse Black British kinderliteratuur, een project waarvoor ze momenteel al een eenjarige financiering ontvangt van de VUB (2024-2025).
De voertaal is het Engels. Een broodjeslunch wordt voorzien. We vragen u om uw aanwezigheid ten laatste tegen 12 maart via deze link te bevestigen. Voor meer informatie over WOLEC, klik hier.
Hopelijk tot dan!
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CLIC is excited to invite you to the next WOLEC session, taking place on Tuesday 18 March from 11:00 till 12:30 in room C3.06. Kayra Maes (VUB) will give a lecture titled: "Fostering Children's Agency Through Play and Care: The Childist Potential of Contemporary Black British Picture Books"
Kayra Maes holds an MA in Linguistics and Literary Studies from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2022-2023) and an Advanced MA in Literary Studies from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2023-2025). She has previously presented at international conferences on Black British literature and children’s literature. Kayra has prepared a funding application with the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for a PhD project on the representation of care in contemporary Black British children’s literature, a project for which she is currently already receiving 1-year funding from VUB (2024-2025).
The lecture will be held in English. A sandwich lunch will be provided. We ask you to confirm your presence via this link by 12 March. For more information about WOLEC, click here.
We hope to see you there!
Abstract
Children’s literature is a genre that, in its very essence, is defined by intergenerational relationships, whether between the authors and their young readers (or addressees) or between the adult and child characters depicted in so many stories. Child-adult relations are often characterised by power imbalances, with the scales typically tipping in the adults’ favour. In this talk, I explore the childist potential of three contemporary Black British picture books through their representation of power dynamics in intra-and intergenerational communities formed around acts of play, and by considering these acts of play as acts of care. Drawing on theories of play and care, as well as on John Wall’s concept of childism, with which he aims to do for children what feminism did for women, I argue that the communities formed in the books function around three central elements, namely open communication, equality, and the freedom to choose if and how to participate; elements which allow the children in the stories to develop and exercise their agency. The childist potential of the picture books adds a political dimension to these stories, which only gains further depth when seen together with their representation of Black characters. Despite not foregrounding the issue of race, the books’ representation of Black children and Black families experiencing joy through play, and caring for themselves and others through that play, sends an important message and can be considered an act of resistance in the context of continued racial violence and discrimination.
