20000310-Rocío Davis, director of the area of Modern Languages of the University of Navarra

"Many contemporary authors are choosing the figure of the child to tell the truths, to seek the essentials of many totally new cultural experiences". This is the analysis of Rocio Davis, director of the area of Modern Languages of the University of Navarra and organizer of the II 'congress on programs of study American and English'.

Nearly seventy European, North American and Canadian specialists will debate until tomorrow, Saturday, on the figure of the child as a character and as a reader in contemporary literature. This congress is organized by the area of Modern Languages of the University of Navarra, with the partnership of the School of Philosophy and Letters, the Service of Cultural Activities Office and Social, the British Council and the Spanish Society of programs of study Canadians.

Specialists study how writers have described the new multicultural societies of the 20th century. "There is no longer one culture, but many at once. How to study it? Novelists adopt the vision of the child to analyze these societies in a neutral way, without arbitrariness. They face them from scratch. Their vision is apparently more limited, but in reality it is more real, ironic and direct because they have neither the disappointments nor the prejudices of adults."

The professor from the University of Navarra gave the example of racism in South Africa: "In a book, an adult would make a thousand lucubrations. On the other hand, the child describes it naively, does not make value judgments, but does not betray what he sees".

The memory of childhood has been a very common resource also among poets and writers: "'Mi arboleda perdida', by Alberti, or 'La rosa', by Cela, are two examples of how writers want to know the way in which their conscience awoke to language and discovered reality. In final, being a poet is like going back to childhood". Nevertheless, childhood has been a figure of interest for the Romantics: "It is the time of ideals, of exacerbated imagination, of contact with nature, in which the person has not yet been corrupted by society".

Computers have not won

Professor Davis recalled that "in American literature, children are the emblematic characters and the protagonists of the best stories: Huckeberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, etc. In this way they have been able to tell the stories in such a way that in the mouths of adults they would look ridiculous".

Specialists are also analyzing children's literature. According to Rosalía Baena, professor at the University of Navarra and organizer of congress, "the love of computers has not managed to stop the production of children's literature. Books retain their importance in children's Education and families and educators know this". He also recommended this subject of works for adult readers: "This is not a minor literature. Even if the author tells a seemingly simple story, you can understand a different level of meaning than what the child understands". In fact, great writers -such as Virginia Woolf or James Joyce- have books in this field.

According to Professor Baena, "Spain does not have a very strong tradition of children's literature, although very successful books are now appearing. It is a sample of the future that awaits these works". All over the world, the boom began in the 1950s: "Since then, all topics can be included in these stories because there is a desire to educate in everything. More care is also taken with the drawings. Nor is it possible to avoid more pessimistic stories in which the child suffers, sees his hopes frustrated or contemplates family breakdown."