Valeria Illuminati, Roberta Pederzoli, and Beatrice Spallaccia, ‘The G-Book Project. Literature for children and YAs from a gender perspective: literary and translation issues’

This talk is part of the CBCP and Outside in World Webinar series on Children’s Literature and Translation and is open to all. To register to join us via Zoom click here.

Speakers: Valeria Illuminati, Roberta Pederzoli, and Beatrice Spallaccia (University of Bologna, MeTRa Centre – Research Centre on Mediation and Translation by and for Children and Young Adults)

The CBCP x OIW webinar series is delighted to welcome a team of speakers from the European G-Book projects. The projects G-BOOK 1 and 2 (Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections and European teens as readers and creators in gender-positive narratives) aim to promote gender positive children’s and young adult literature in terms of roles and models, a literature that is open-minded, plural, varied, free from stereotypes, and that encourages respect and diversity. The first part of the webinar will develop a critical-theoretical reflection on literature for children and young adults from a gender perspective and on its translation. In particular, we will discuss:

• gender representations and stereotypes
• families
• male and female characters
• LGBTQ+ issues
• and the G-BOOK European projects.

The second part will explore case studies of LGBTQ+ themed illustrated books in English and French translated into Italian. We will analyze both the paratext and the text itself, showing how in the transfer from one language and culture to another there are some shifts and changes, which are not necessarily questionable, but however present the source text in a new light and produce a different effect on the target reader.