The Strange Child

The motif of the strange child pervades literature from all eras and genres. Since the ‘discovery of childhood’ by Rousseau in the second half of the 18th century and by the Romantics at the beginning of the 19th century, it has increasingly become the focus of literature, but also of other arts. The motif is particularly well suited to the artistic exploration of alterity and experiences of foreignness and serves as a canvas for the projection of longings and desires, fears and nightmares.

The basic tension of redemption and seduction is often inscribed in the figure of the strange child. This is also the case in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous fairy tale ‘The Strange Child’, which provided the title for the conference. Here, as in many other tales, the strange child appears as if from nowhere and changes its surroundings. Not always for the better. It is only in more recent children's literature that the strange child usually has a liberating, empowering, sometimes even messianic power. Famous examples are Astrid Lindgren's ‘Pippi Longstocking’, Michael Ende's “Momo” or J.K. Rowling's ‘Harry Potter’.

But why do the topics of childhood and foreignness so often occur together? In order to answer this question, the conference aims to analyse the topos of the strange child in different historical, cultural and theoretical contexts.

Conference chair: Prof. Dr Markus May and Dr Christiane Raabe

A co-operation of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Stiftung Internationale Jugendbibliothek

With the kind support of the Cultural Department of the City of Munich and the Bünemann Foundation