Based on sources from rare book libraries in Russia and around the world, Picturing the Page offers a vivid exploration of illustrated children's literature and reading under Lenin and Stalin - a period when mass publishing for children and universal public education became available for the first time in Russia. By analysing the illustrations in fairy tales, classic "adult" literature reformatted for children, and war-time picture books, Megan Swift elucidates the vital and multifaceted function of illustrated children's literature in repurposing the past.

Picturing the Page demonstrates that while the texts of the past remained fixed, illustrations could slip between the pages to mediate and annotate that past, as well as connect with anti-religious, patriotic, and other campaigns that were central to Soviet children's culture after the 1917 Revolution.

About the Author
Megan Swift is an associate professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria.

Reviews
"Megan Swift's Picturing the Page is a welcome new addition to the research of illustrated children's books and children's reading. Picturing the Page ambitiously seeks to reconstruct the relationship between illustrated children's books and children's reading in the context of the Soviet literature curriculum and reading culture." -- Larissa Rudova, Pomona College and Marina Balina, Wesleyan University * The Russian Review *
"Swift's work is invaluable to an understanding of Soviet visual culture, thanks especially to its extensive illustrations, but it will also be of great interest to scholars of children's literature." -- James H. McGavran III, Kenyon College * Children's Literature Association Quarterly *
"Picturing the Page is an example of thorough interdisciplinary research written in an engaging manner, well supported with wonderful images." -- Natallia Kabiak, University of Melbourne * Australian Slavonic and East European Studies *
"Car c'est bien un autre merite de cet ouvrage original, riche et stimulant, que d'ouvrir vers differents prolongements, alors meme qu'il constitue en soi une reelle avancee dans la recherche sur le livre illustre pour enfants de l'epoque sovietique, tant du point de vue des objets etudies que de la demarche adoptee." -- Cecile Pichon-Bonin, CNRS * Cahiers du monde russe *
"Swift has created an intriguing masterpiece that will be an enjoyable read to anyone interested in children's literature's impact on society, Russian or otherwise." -- Jennifer Ladwig * Publishing Research Quarterly *


Awards
Winner of 2021 Book Award from the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) 2021 (Canada) and 2021 Canadian Association of Slavists Taylor & Francis Book Prize 2021 (Canada).



Book Information
ISBN 9781442615311
Author Megan Swift
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 380g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 13mm