Our language is full of 'sweet' terms to describe situations (‘a bittersweet moment’), things (‘popcorn brain’), behaviour (‘to have a sweet tooth’), or even loved ones (‘sweety’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘honey’) that are originally not linked to food. What seems to be common to almost all cultures, is reflected in the fact that we humans are born with a taste for sweets, and that sweets have shaped our cultures and our language. This has also been reflected in children's literature and media. This is the starting point for this invaluable collection of essays, which deals specifically with sweets and the spectrum of hedonistic and regulated indulgence in different cultures and media for children. The contributions analyse classics of children’s literature, but also more recent texts and other media such as magazines, films, television programmes and computer games. Cultural Perspectives on Sweets in Children’s Literature and Media creates a kaleidoscope of the various functions of sweets and their significance for children’s culture, thus providing an overview of the diversity of the subject.
Edited by:
Sabine Planka,
Corina Löwe
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781032943022
ISBN 10: 1032943025
Series: Children's Literature and Culture
Pages: 214
Publication Date: 25 April 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Sweets in Children’s Literature and Media. A Short Introduction into a Sweet and Delicious Topic Corina Löwe and Sabine Planka Section 1: Sweets as an Expression of Culture and Cultural Attitudes as well as National Cuisines Chapter 1 Sugar – A Substance Between Health, Temptation, and Moral in German Dolls’ and Children’s Cookbooks from 19th to 21st Century Sabine Planka Chapter 2 ‘A Cookie is a Sometime Food’. Cookie Monster and the Politics of Children’s Health on Sesame Street Abby Whitaker Chapter 3 Sugar magic: Australian children’s literature, sweets, and national identity Paul Venzo Chapter 4 ‘We do all this to celebrate the beauty of life and death rather than mourn it’: Sugary Skulls, Pan de Muerto and the Context of Mexican Día de Muertos in Children’s Books Sabine Planka Chapter 5 Sweet Treats and Cultural Commentary in Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and Spirited Away (2001) Nermin Karademir Section 2: Sweets as Key Moments for the Development of Characters and Interpersonal Relationships in Children’s Media Chapter 6 Swallowed Tears and Ice-Cream: Sweets and the Lonely Child in East German Children’s Literature Corina Löwe Chapter 7 The Emancipatory Milkshake: Sweets in a Swedish girls’ magazine Kristina Öhman Chapter 8 ‘Blond, Pink, and Porky’: The Dehumanization of Fat Characters Eating Sweets in British 20th Century Children’s Book Classics Åsa Warnqvist and Mia Österlund Section 3: Sweets in Children’s Literature and Media as Symbols and Metaphors Chapter 9 Tailor-made Pastries in La signorina Euforbia: Food Pedagogy in Italian Pre-Teens’ Literature Simona Di Martino Chapter 10 The Sweet Temptations of Fairy Tales: Exploring the Symbolic Role of Sweets Artemis Papailia Chapter 11 ‘These Creatures are not just Delightful, they’re Delicious’: The Cultural Meaning of the Trolls as Sweets in DreamWorks’ Trolls (2016) Philip van der Merwe Chapter 12 To Eat and/or Be Eaten: A Yummy Guide with Zombies Inside Corey Whitley, Daniel Ihrmark, and Johan Nilsson
Sabine Planka, Dr. phil., works as an academic librarian at the Martin-Opitz-Library (Herne, Germany) in the field of public relations, event management and project management, and as a visiting lecturer at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld, Germany) in the field of children's literature. Her research particularly focuses on children’s literature, cookbook literature, and literary food studies. She is also interested in aspects of space and gender theory, and she works in the field of film studies. Latest publications include, for example, “What and How Will We Eat in Future? Food Culture, Food System, and Food Memory in Cli-fi Novels for Young Adults” (2024, together with Corina Löwe), and “Meet to Eat. The Restaurant as Narrative Setting in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) and The Fisher King (1991)” in A Critical Companion to Terry Gilliam (2023) edited by Sabine Planka, Philip van der Merwe, and Ian Bekker. Corina Löwe, PhD, is Associate Professor of German in the Department of Languages at Linnaeus University, Sweden. After her dissertation on East German children’s crime fiction (2011), she has continued her research on 20th- and 21st-century children’s literature, East German children’s literature, intermediality, and didactics of literature and language teaching. Together with Sabine Planka, she researches aspects of food and nutrition in children’s media. Her latest publication is an anthology of girls’ literature: “Flickor som löser gåtor. I flickdetektivernas värld” (in Flickboken & flickors läsning. Flickskapande nu och då, edited by Helene Ehriander and Corina Löwe, 2022) and ""Power! No Doubt About It. Power Structures in Swedish Crime Fiction for Children"" in Astrid Lindgren's Works (2021), edited by Helene Ehriander.
