Views on children and childrens literature. What signals have libraries for children got during the 20th century?

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what intentions handbooks, laws and regulations have had about children and childrens literature, as we think that they can serve as guiding principles for childrens libraries in Sweden. The questions are: what signals have the childrens libraries got from the documents concerning the view of children and childrens literature during the 20th century? What has the social opinion about children been during the 20th century? How have children been seen during the 20th century? The method we used is a qualitative source analysis of mention above documents seen from a hermeneutical point of view. This analysis is woven together with the social opinion on children during the 20th century. Our results show that the aim of childrens literature before 1945 was a pedagogic and moral one. After that childrens literature could also be a source of relaxation. Up to the 1980s there has been a discussion going on about quality on children's literature and whether books should be the main resource for the childrens libraries. From the 1990s childrens literature has had the purpose to promote childrens lingual and literate progress. The documents didnt say much about views on children before 1960, but in newer documents the signals about how libraries should treat and promote children are very distinct.Uppsatsnivå: