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In:Children's Literature and the Avant-Garde
Edited by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 5] 2015
► pp. 217–240

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Chapter 9. Manifestations of the avant-garde and its legacy in French children’s literature

 | Brock University (Canada)
Published online: 29 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.5.10bec
The influence of the avant-garde manifested itself very early in French children’s literature in pioneering works such as Édy Legrand’s Macao et Cosmage (1919). In the 1930s, Constructivism and Surrealism inspired the children’s books of Nathalie Parain, and Lise Deharme and Claude Cahun respectively. In the 1960s and 1970s, the avant-garde continued to play a significant role in the works of innovative publishers, such as Delpire, Harlin Quist, Le Sourire qui mort, and Ipomée, who were determined to revolutionize children’s books. This chapter examines several landmark books of the avant-garde period and traces the lasting influence of the movement on French children’s books into the twenty-first century, including the legacy of crossover picturebooks that appeal to both children and adults.
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