8/3/2019 animales LITERATURA INFANTIL

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/animales-literatura-infantil 1/1

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/childhood/project-

archives/1s/session-1-children%E2%80%99s-literature/#high_1  

Otra página de interés: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Co-Fa/Fairy-Tales-and-Fables.html  

Philosophers have argued over the relationship between animals and humans: are we

radically different or is the difference one of  mere degree, if that? Where do we draw the

boundaries between the human and non-human animal and how sharp are those borders? Even

if we are inclined today to dismiss any such absolute distinctions, these boundaries persist in

our imaginations and lives. However, for children, these borders are not so firm and fast and

they experience a special k inship with the animal world.

Animals feature prominently in the lives of our children: in their toys, stories, movies and in

their direct relationships with pets. So in what ways are we different from and disconnected

from the animal world? For clearly in many ways they are “the alien other,” an otherness far more profound than that of our fellow human beings. We define ourselves by our cultural

edifices (arts, learning, technology) and that act of definition has yielded both creative and

destructive acts of distancing from the animal world around us. Yet, children engage in acts of  

both separation and connection in their relationships with animals.

This paper-presentation will explore the meaning of being an animal and be ing a human

through the eyes of  the child by considering the presence and role of animals in children’s

literature and lives. In what ways are animals used as mirrors to model who we ought to be

and in what ways are they representations of the non-human, the less-than-human and all that

the designator “less” implies? Are there stories in which animals function as more than

human? Does the manifestation of animals in children’s stories and in their lives reveal

something about childhood’s access to the animal world, an access that might be foreclosed to

adults? Do media designed for children falsify or subvert an animal/human bond of 

authenticity? Do children relate differently to living animals than adults do and can this

relationship offer significant clues to the broader questions to the animal/human border? By

considering the k inship relationships between children and animals we hope to open up some

threads for productive dialogue and reflection on the mean ing of childhood as reflected in the 

animal gaze.