(Non-)Flying Horses in the Polish People's Republic: The Crisis of the Mythical Beast in Ambivalent Polish Children's Literature

Under communist reign writing children’s literature became a way to circumvent censorship. Children’s literature offered a retreat, where Polish authors were able to communicate – albeit in a more or less concealed way – on political subjects with a readership consisting of children and adult readers alike. The result was a number of ‘children’s’ books that are astonishing not only due to their content, but also to their original language and imagery. In addition to the camouflage provided by the genre (children’s literature), some authors added a second layer of camouflage to conceal their criticism by using motifs and figures from mythology – amongst which mythical beasts. In my chapter, I trace some of these mythical beasts in ambivalent Polish children’s literature, enquiring their role in communicating with a dual readership in times of governmental censorship. I am particularly interested in the crises of the mythical beasts in these texts – not only of those that do turn up in the books, but also of those, who’s existence is reduced to a mere ‘hypothesis’ within the texts. Is the crisis of the mythical beast a symptom of Polish reality at the time?The volume gathers the results of a stage of the programme Our Mythical Childhood, supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives and an ERC Consolidator Grant. Open Access at Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH at https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-7874-5/Marciniak_Ed_Chasing_Mythical_Beasts_PDF/ book/ hardcover ISBN: 978-3-8253-6995-8 Series: Studien zur europäischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur/Studies in European Children's and Young Adult Literature, Volume No.: