Play in narratives for children: on the “Rules” of a new fiction

Abstract

The combination of topics like game and its relevance in childhood, literature as a ludic expression or narrative as game substrate (as it happens in certain board games) led to the reflection on contemporary narratives whose "fracturing construction” breaks some paradigms of fiction for young readers. We will analyse picturebooks which, boasting an interactive, intentionally playful and challenging format, partly disrupt the "traditional narrative rigidity" in what characters and diegetic succession/actantial linearity are concerned, among other elements. This is what can be observed in Courage Knight!, by Delphine Chedru, or in A Book, by Hervé Tullet, for example. Similarly, we will focus on Portuguese examples. Following the global tendency, three books allow us already to identify some "rules" of game-narratives: What there is and This book is calling you, both by Isabel Minhós Martins and Madalena Matoso; A little wave by Isabel Minhós Martins and Yara Kono. Planeta Tangerina published them all.