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Officially in 1934, socialist realism emerged in Soviet society as the new cultural aesthetic, providing an artistic framework for all forms of cultural productionart, music, architecture and literature. In the realm of childrens writing, socialist realism had particularly interesting effects on the themes and formulas that were utilized by authors. Though once thought to represent the tsarist and peasant past, the Party encouraged the use of traditional folk elements to popularize the new overtly Soviet tales, despite the apparent unorthodoxy. Similarly, authors were encouraged to reintroduce the hero, also seemingly unorthodox in what was a theoretically collective society. Nonetheless, heroic themes and characters emerged to recognize achievements in industry and the drive for modernization, encourage vigilance against internal and external spies and saboteurs, propagandize the Soviet war effort against Germany, and honour Soviet soldiers for their sacrifices. Soviet childrens books demonstrated to youth the communist qualities of selflessness and devotion to the collective, and about the dangers of idleness. Children learned that the Soviet Union was to be the new Soviet family, replacing the bond of blood kinship. The leader cult filtered down to childrens books and Stalin made a significant appearance as the father of all heroes. This thesis argues that the Party recognized the value of childrens literature for shaping the character development of young readers. Popular in their own right, childrens books were not able to avoid the manipulation and control of the Party, which employed them as tools of propaganda. However, it is difficult to separate the extent of their genuine popularity from their appeal as propaganda.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 279 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Barbara Lehman, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-255).

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This study explores how imagined communities based on U.S. mainstream values and social attitudes are embedded in multicultural children's literature through a critical content analysis of cultural representations in 24 Korean-American picture books. Korean-American culture is often defined through other Asian cultures in picture books and the collective interpretations of Asian culture perpetuate otherness and marginality of Korean-American culture. Otherness can be viewed through postcolonialism as a way to rethink and reconstruct the ways in which racial, ethnic, and cultural others have been repressed, misrepresented, omitted, and stereotyped by colonial mentality (Xie, 2000).The term "Asian American" was used after the Civil Rights movement by Asian Americans to claim a lawful right as representative citizens to reconstruct their own collective identities (Chae 2008). This collective identity of Asian American enhances misrepresentations of Korean culture as one of the Asian cultures. Korean-American culture in picture books is misrepresented through confusion with other Asian cultures, misunderstandings of Asian-Americans, and social mind-set of Korean-Americans. The study discusses the dominant social attitudes toward Korean-Americans as forever `new' foreigners because of the dominance of contemporary picture books which depict Korean-Americans only as recent immigrants. Ahmad (1996) states that postcolonial perspectives are often a polite way of saying "not-White" or Korean-Americans are "not-America-but-inside-America."A critical content analysis of 24 picture books published in the U.S. and 98 reviews of those books examines the representation and misrepresentation of Korean culture and Korean-American culture through the frame of critical discourse analysis and cultural studies. This study contributes to the previous studies of multicultural children's literature by differentiating from the collective approaches in which ethnic groups were grouped together in data collection and analysis.The findings of this study indicate that the "cultural diversity" celebbrated by U.S. multiculturalism has actually contributed to reinforcing the image of Korean-Americans as one of the Orientals by focusing too strongly on difference. The use of multicultural children's literature in classrooms needs to include a focus on difference as a tool used by readers to understand, not stereotype, a particular cultural group and should be combined with a focus on human connection and commonality.

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History as a school subject confronts a child with events, motives for action, and moral dilemmas, demanding a high level of abstract reasoning. Before the child reaches the cognitive stage of formal operations (14 years), his abstract reasoning is limited and egocentric in terms of time concept and social consciousness. To supplement this lack of abstraction, it seems necessary to enrich the teaching of history by means of substitute experiences. In an analysis of different teaching methods, it was found that abstract historical facts become more palatable to the pupil when historical novels are used to replace direct experience. The pupil thus identifies with the historical character of his own age group, and encounters history on a human level, because an emotional involvement with the facts has taken place. If a historical novel is to be utilized successfully it must therefore be more than a feebly romanticized, and superficial account of historical facts. Such a novel should capture the exact atmosphere of a specific era. It should attain a delicate balance between fact and fiction, gripping intrigue and real life characters in order to form an emotional bridge between reality and abstract historical facts. In reviewing South African history from 1488 to 1915, it seems that the fiction possibilities of this era have been adequately exploited. Novelists have however given preference to events of a more spectacular nature. More attention and focus has been given to novels for older children and teenagers. There is a great variety of these novels, enabling the pupil of middle childhood and adolescence to identify with the characters, thus experiencing universal needs and universal problems. The natural affinity for fantasy of early childhood has however not been utilized fully. The historical novel concerning the history of indigenous race groups is scantily represented. This jeopardizes the employment of historical novels in promoting positive attitudes towards other races and meaningful co-existence in South Africa. / MBibl, PU vir CHO, 1985