Russia’s war against Ukraine has displaced millions of children and exposed a generation in Russia and the occupied territories to indoctrination, while adults and children alike are lacking a language to explain the war. For those who tell children’s stories, the specialized branch of children’s book publishers, the war has destructed Ukrainian publishing infrastructures, tightened political control with Russian publishers, irreparably damaged previously mutual book trade networks, and increased economic pressures.
Against this background, the research project is prompted by the observation that certain independent publishers attempt to produce alternative books that voice otherwise underrepresented child experiences of war, dislocation, and militarization of childhood. Due to their nicheness these publishers have–so far–been able to bring out critical and creative books about war and migration that appear in demand among a parental co-audience.
The research project aims to document the publication of such books, as a creation process amid destruction, now (as long) as it takes place; to stretch existing methods for examining children’s books that challenge ideas of childhood as a protected, peaceful stage of life; and to develop a conceptual framework for interpreting the different possibilities, motivations, and survival strategies of Ukrainian and Russian children’s book publishers.
The project is guided by two interrelated questions 1) how and why do independent Ukrainian and Russian children’s book publishers and their authors operate under wartime conditions? 2) how do the resulting children’s books resonate child experiences of war and dislocation?
The project claims that exactly by representing a child perspective in a marginal medium, the published books do not merely have symbolic significance as works of art and literature but constitute a necessary pre-requisite for a future epistemic change, as the books contribute to the acculturation of coming generations’ awareness of war and its injustices.
