Part of
Children's Literature and the Avant-GardeEdited by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 5] 2015
► pp. 171–188
This chapter discusses the sources of influence on progressive Danish picturebooks from the 1930s and 1940s. The impact of Russian avant-garde books is described, followed by a discussion of the terms ‘Modernism’ and ‘avant-garde’. Four picturebooks are analyzed with a focus on new elements related to visual expression, ideological content, verbal expression, and the image of the child. The conclusion is that picturebook creators were inspired by a number of sources, leading to the beginning of a new era of picturebook creation in Scandinavia that is too complex to be summarized in one word.