(NE)KANONSKA ČITANJA: SAVREMENE TEORIJSKE KONTROVERZE I PROUČAVANJE ROMANA ZA DECU I MLADE U ČASOPISU DETINJSTVO (2000–2020)

The paper illuminates some aspects of the influence of the literary canon debate on the institutionalization of specific theoretical approaches in the interpretation of children’s novels. This genre, as evidenced by many thematic issues of the journal Childhood in the first de- cades of the twenty-first century, provides fertile ground for the institutional legitimization of literary theories whose postulates imply a demand for challenging or re- forming the canon, such as cultural Marxist, gender, postcolonial, and other readings that dominantly rely on the category of individual and collective identity. In this research, the role of the Childhood journal in the academic institutionalization of these methodologies is analyzed within the context of a specific paradox. The study of children’s and young adult literature has proven to be a favorable environment for non-canonical and anti-canonical readings, although the entry of these explorations into the academic framework is undeniably marked by a struggle for legitimacy and status of the subject of study. In simpler terms, while inviting to challenge the literary canon, the theory of children’s literature requested the authority for children’s and YA literature similar to that of the literary canon for adults. The aim of the paper is to describe the literary-theoretical paradigms on which the study of novels for children and young adults in the journal Childhood relies, using the major currents of literary theory on a global scale as a reference-comparative framework.