Children’s Studies Research Seminar: “Home is Where the Cat is: Kinship and Community in Recent Children’s Literature about the Holocaust”

Children’s Studies Research Seminar

 “Home is Where the Cat is: Kinship and Community in Recent Children’s Literature about the Holocaust”

 Professor Janneke van de Stadt (Williams College, USA)

Abstract:

Animals abound in children’s literature and the picturebook genre is no exception. Focused on the particular role and function of their respective feline characters, my presentation will compare three picture books and one graphic novel spanning the first two decades of the 21^st century through what is a less-commonly utilized interpretive lens in Holocaust studies: indigenous cultural theories of human dependence on animals for psycho-social, spiritual, and existential survival. Through such themes as shelter, bonding, and nourishment, on both physical and metaphysical levels, I examine how these books broaden and complicate received notions of family, community, and belonging.