Literatuur Zonder Leeftijd. Jaargang 4

[p. 5]

Woord van welkom symposium Jeugdboekenschrijvers^*
Hugo Verdaasdonk

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the board of the Dutch Writers' Union and the board of the National Platform for Children's Literature I welcome you to this conference. I give my warmest thanks to the members of the organizing committee for their unsparing efforts and careful preparations. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the authors, literary critics and illustrators who are present here for their willingness to attend this conference.

The National Platform for Children's Literature, founded in 1986, joins forces with authors, illustrators, booksellers, publishers, librarians, teachers and researchers to stimulate and further the interest in children's literature. About ten years ago a modest breakthrough has occurred: nowadays children's literature is widely used in the curricula of Dutch primary schools, dailies and weeklies allow more space to reviews of children's books, at our universities important research projects are conducted on children's literature and on reading by children. The long efforts of so many librarians, teachers and other individual aficionados of children's literature seem to bear fruit at last. In my opinion, there is an intimate connection between these positive developments and the steady increase of the quality of books for children. Never in the history of Dutch literature have so many authors - and illustrators - succeeded in building up a solid artistic reputation. The activities of the National Platform for Children's Literature are a part of the developments I have referred to and contribute to them. I shall not dwell here on the projects executed or devised by the National Platform. I assure you that the board will continue doing its utmost to strengthen the position of children's literature. We acknowledge with deep gratitude the support we receive from experts in the field. - and the invaluable help given by Toin Duijx to whom the National Platform owes so much.

I would like to address a special word of welcome to Aidan Chambers, one of the most important authors of children's books and our guest of honor.

* Uitgesproken op 20 april 1990.

[p. 6]

Aidan Chambers has developed very sophisticated views on the nature of children's literature. To my knowledge, he has been the first to apply within this field of study the conceptual framework propounded by such scholars as Gadamer, Barthes, Genette and Iser that has had such profound bearings on the approaches to literature for adults. Mr. Chambers treats children's literature as a form of communication. He puts strong emphasis on the devices by means of which authors transmit their thoughts, and their ‘world’, to their readers. The originality of his approach lies in the correspondences he has established, in a very convincing way, between narrative techniques employed in books and in television plays. With this, Mr. Chambers has made a very important contribution to closing the gap that culture critics take to exist between reading and watching television.

The aims that Aidan Chambers pursues are the very same that the National Platform tries to achieve. I have come to think, however, that textual analyses, however subtle and ingenious they might be, contribute less than is generally thought to the growth of our interest in children's literature. We should not overestimate the importance of academic scholarship for the creative work of authors and illustrators. We should not overestimate either the role that academic scholars and reviewers can play in enhancing the interest of the general public in children's literature. Literary criticism informs those who are already well informed.

Any extant approach to children's literature, even the communicative approach so aptly practised by Aidan Chambers, is in urgent need of being supplemented by insights gained in the sociology of culture and cognitive psychology.

We should know far more about the factors that determine the choice behavior of buyers and borrowers of books and the processing of texts in order to weigh the results of literary theorists and critics.

All this is not meant to belittle the importance, the novelty or the sophistication of Mr. Chambers' views. He teaches us that communication is a subtle art, that it conveys multiple meanings and that it rewards the skilled reader by respecting his or her freedom. His works show that an author may use the results of academic research and yet completely retain his independence and freshness as a creative artist. I wish that this attitude would become more common in the Netherlands - it would enhance the level of literary criticism and secure a more solid status of academic scholarship in every-day culture.

[p. 7]

As a writer of important books that are widely read Aidan Chambers uses an instrument for increasing the commitment of the general public that the National Platform unhappily lacks. Notwithstanding the importance of schooling, research and book promotion, positive early experiences with texts determine whether or not one will be an avid reader of literature at a later stage in life. It is the privilege of gifted authors that only their books can give these positive and crucial experiences.