What place does children’s literature occupy in Argentina and what kind of society does it speak of, in the case of a literature which, because it is called for children, is still for adults, or what is that publishing market like in a present of audiovisual omnipresence? which opens the documentary “Infancias y libros”, a unitary documentary visible from this Thursday on the cont.ar platform, with interviews with great references of the genre such as Adela Basch and Luciano Saracino, produced by the Casa Nacional del Bicentenario (CNB).
What is the children’s literature that a society consumes and produces? This is a concern that doesn’t end with the answers, but rather extends the 45-minute film made by CNB as part of a larger project dedicated to children born last winter, which feeds on initiatives that cross the conceptual universe of the Maison, as its director, María Fukelman, will call it from now on. A project that already has its own Children’s Space and library.
But how did this question arise and, above all, what questions were taken into consideration to try to answer it.
This year at the CNB “there were several instances dedicated to childhood, a specific space that we inaugurated during the winter holidays in dialogue with the exhibition we had at that time, “Las olas del deseo”, and which lasted two months . context The concerns of the audiovisual area of the House converge, which wanted to generate its own content, and of the Ideas area, which brings together childhood, diversity, education and accessibility and which was putting this space together. The common possibility we found was to leverage the library we were developing in the children’s space and shape this unity,” says Télam Fukelman.
“Our interest is that the activities have an impact, so the writer Cristina Macjus and the illustrator Nicolás Lasalle, authors of the book “Dos cositos marinos” that the Futurock label presented to the House, were also two of the guests of the unit such as Any González and Ana Medina”, a storyteller and the other co-founder of La Nube, the first bookstore and library in Buenos Aires dedicated to cultural production for children, created in 1975″, he indicates.
Which readings allow “to know the place that the LIJ occupies in Argentine society, one of the postulates of this documentary.
“What is a nation made of? -asks Saracino-, author of books such as ‘October and the stars’ or ‘Stories among the tombs’-. There are many possible answers, obviously from facts, people or stories that generated gifts, but it is also made up of books, we are also our writers -Borges, Bornemann, María Elena Walsh-, we are the ones who told us what we were. Simple Argentine literature founds us as a country. We are our books, the homeland tells its story and there are many ways to tell it”.
The unitary invites you to “awaken the imagination, creativity and connection with the world of books”. How to define that world in which the international mainstream often reproduces the dominant audiovisual story, although libraries, fairs and bookstores proliferate on the national scene, small and independent children’s labels have grown and were born even in a pandemic and the most important childhood literary festivals fringe their preferred interlocutors are the reading mediators.
“Despite the rise of mobile phones or TV on demand, it will always be a plan for a girl or boy to read a story – before bed, in the afternoon or whatever – it is something analog that can transform itself when read by technological devices but that it will never disappear, that there are no risks. It will always be attractive to do the voices of the characters for the kids or to make them read by their own means or to know what comes next, how it ends ” says Fukelmann.
In any case, he adds, “the themes change, something super interesting that the audiovisual talks about, but the kids and the books will always be united”.
“The books are there and there will be books”, Saracino reiterates, “they continue to be that bonfire where we sit down to get some light and warm up. Reading a book with a child is an act of love, just like reading a book to an adult, those of us who have read it know that. We are not afraid, the video games are great, the screens are great, nothing happens as long as there is also a book that goes with it.”
From the point of view of Basch, author of books such as “Que sea Odisea” and “Ulises no me pises”, the current world of children’s books in Argentina “is very rich and has a great development. At first glance -he warns- , this does not agree with much of the social scene, but perhaps, precisely because it is literature, it can be sustained despite contradictory conditions”.
“There is little in today’s global scene that favors the construction of meanings and contributes to going beyond the known”, underlines Basch, therefore “the emergence of small publishers and the exceptional activity of reading mediators is a response to this situation ”.
In that world of books, he contributes Lasalle, “there are much more diverse, richer, more profound, experimental and creative proposals than in other times, and this is linked to the way we see childhood today, with the importance and transcendence that we know to have the experiences lived in childhood”.
Also involved, says the cartoonist, “the awareness that creativity is a muscle which, if exercised, develops, especially in that completely unscrupulous moment of life. We must encourage the idea that creativity is not a gift, that it’s more to do with an exercise that we can all develop in one way or another in any field.”
The program was entirely produced by the Casa Nacional del Bicentenario, what does the CNB mean by literature for children and young people, what is that sign for? “In principle it is a concept that is in crisis and that is why the title of the documentary, ‘Childhood and books’, does not speak of LIJ – Fukelman underlines-. We use it in the traditional sense, related to how girls, boys and children relate to books and, if we consider that we are children up to 18 years old, then we think of books that interest children between zero and 18″.
If a literature, mediated by whoever it is, can be considered for adults, so does a children’s literature. “Clearly and simply that children are interested – says Basch -; that their reading is pleasant and fun; that they arouse curiosity and the desire to continue reading or listening; that if they are given the opportunity to choose themselves what read, choose it; that it does not bore them; that it does not tell them what they should do or how they should be; that it does not pretend to be a means to an end foreign to literature itself”.
“It is very subjective for who literature is -adds Lasalle-, it depends a lot on the context -experiences, interests and those things that move the reader-, it has to do with what a story generates in us, a story when you read it or we see”.
Something similar happens when this literature is illustrated, “the most relevant thing is what that text generates in me -he points out-, how it crosses me, the sensations I get while reading it, all of this builds a visual universe that is much more important than everything else when drawing”.
The proposal of the documentary is to investigate literature and childhood. What is the importance of children’s literature in the formation of the social network, in the construction and staging of the imaginary and identity of a community?
For Fukelman, the LIJ “has central importance, from their readings childhood incorporates other viewpoints and worldviews, I think it’s the most valuable thing it has, showing other possibilities.
“One of the examples they gave in the ‘document’ -he indicates- is that of a literature where girls who are no longer princesses waiting for a prince to save them, but are strong and go in search of what they want now to fulfill their you want. The LIJ is fundamental to the constitution of human beings, apart from the fact that it strengthens you in grammar, there is no way to write well if you do not read a lot”.
A special feature of this unit is that the interviews are done in non-sexist language, “we have the political will for all people to feel included and, although it is more inconvenient for the language to put the ‘e’ or the X, let’s try to delve into those places, even if sometimes we also eat some insults on the networks, but we believe it is time to ‘update’ to the times that run”, explains Fukelman.
The program, he adds, “could be of interest to children from eight years of age and to an adult audience, we would like it to be watched and appreciated above all, but the biggest challenge was to make it happen”.
“It was done entirely with Casa’s resources -he recalls- and this makes us very proud but at the same time it was hard work because here we don’t have a film studio -the only external thing was the color post-production- and the technical resources are not the most recent, but in any case it is an extremely decent and above all tender product”.
“I’ve seen it six or seven times and I never stop doing it with a smile, due to the reflections made by the interviewees, very interesting and beautiful people in the way they make us travel, combined with the participation of girls and boys from the Children’s Space of the House and the writing and reading workshop of the Casa Museo Ricardo Rojas”, say hello.
