Studia Islandica - 01.06.1976, Page 141

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youngsters meet vvith in the books are law-breakers. The kids have
more to do with them in the books on the average than with their
teachers (8.1).
The detective stories are almost all boys’ books. Violence is quite
a usual feature in these books, sometimes vividly described (12.1). On
the other hand there are never any descriptions of kissing or petting
in the detective stories, nor in the other stories for that matter (12.3),
although the most common agegroup of the main characters is 13—
15 years (2.2).
The attitude towards the native country is quite nationalistic when
this subject arises. But the neighbouring countries, Norway, Denmark,
England and France come out very favourably as well, Norway and
England even more so tlian Denmark. Gennans on the other hancl
appear seldom and always unfavourably. The attitude towards Negroes
is positive if a little overbearing, but Red Indians are pictured un-
favourably in the tradition of the American Wild West stories (chap-
ter 13).
The authors of the children’s books are predominantly male, 106
of the books are by men, 40 by women, 13 are by two authors, one
of each sex. This may account for the greater number of books about
boys (2.1).
When these authors were studied more closely it appeared that
most of them were 50 or more years old when the books were pub-
lished. Practioally all of them belonged to the upper or middle class,
and almost 70% of them (authors of 80% of the books) were or had
been teachers. Most of them lived in towns at the time of writing the
books but had lived in the country as children. Comparing the situa-
tions of the characters in the books with those of the authors it be-
came fairly apparent that most of tliem were writing about their own
childhood or at least using it in the books as a basis. Even so most of
these stories cannot be considered valid as an introduction to former
times as these former times are too much glorified.
The bulk of Icelandic children’s books during the eleven years,
1960—1970, are typical trivial literature for children. But there are
exceptions. Amongst these are some of the finest novels published in
Iceland during the period. The foremost writers to break in some way
the pattern described in this summary and who take their young
readers seriously are Stefán Jónsson, Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir, Guð-
mimdur G. Hagalin, Oddur Bjömsson, Margrét Jónsdóttir, Stefán Júl-
íusson, Óskar Aðalsteinn, Magnea frá Kleifum, Gunnar M. Magnúss
and Ólafur Jóhann Sigurðsson.