Feminism in Contemporary Russian Children’s Literature, or How to Translate the Word Avtorka into English*

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is devoted to contemporary children’s literature and the role played in it by women writers, publishers, translators, illustrators, researchers, educators, and librarians. Asonova and Bukhina emphasize the role of the maternal principle both in women’s writing and in the development of the contemporary publishing process and explore the feminist aspects of the many fraught issues raised within the framework of the genre of social realism in contemporary children’s writing. Asonova and Bukhina also explore the influence of translated children’s literature on Russian books for kids and teens published in the last decade and note the importance of the “high bar” set by translated literature. Authors of the article stress the significance of girl protagonists in teens’ literature as well as of variety of the deep psychological issues expressed with the help of these characters. Authors of the article discussed a role of picture books and non-fiction publications in the development of contemporary Russian writing for children.