Enid Blyton – how a British author captivated children across generations and languages

3. Dezember 2024 19:00

Dr Aileen Behrendt & Dr Stefanie Jakobi

Enid Blyton is one of the world’s most well-known and prolific authors of children’s literature. Her book series have entertained children across the globe and across generations for almost a century. What exactly is it that makes her books so appealing to young audiences, even today? And are German children reading an entirely different version of Enid Blyton, due to the translation? Are her books a bit old-fashioned by today’s standards, or is there still something to be gained by reading her today? And can she be said to have had a significant influence on German-British relations?

The discussion will draw on findings from a recent conference called “Writing a British Childhood in a Global Context? Critical Perspectives on Enid Blyton” which focused on her work and its international reception. The conference was organised by Dr. Stefanie Jakobi (University of Bremen), Dr. Aileen Behrendt (University of Potsdam) and Dr. Hadassah Stichnothe (University of Bremen) as a cooperation between the University of Bremen and the University of Potsdam.

The event will be chaired by Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Vice Chairman, Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft.

Please join the event by using this link: (No prior registration required!) https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89967977912?pwd=mDCZhkHiZy3lpb3SEIuFOIIU5j2ibi.1

Dr Aileen Behrendt is a researcher and lecturer of British Literary and Cultural Studies and an academic coordinator of the DGF research training group ‘minor cosmopolitanisms’ at the University of Potsdam, currently working on a second book about the politics of kindness in single camera sitcoms. She is a member of the research network Comic Literacies: Kulturtechniken des Komischen at the KWI Essen. Her most recent publications include “Witty Women – Femininity and Intellect in TV Comedies” (The European Journal of American Studies, 19.3/2024, Ed. Nele Sawallish) and “Sexual Health and the British (High) School Experience in Netflix’s Sex Education” (Hard Times, 2023, Ed. Anke Bartels). She is the author of Gender Politics and British Women Writers of the 1930s (Königshausen&Neumann, 2020).

Dr Stefanie Jakobi is a lecturer at the department for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Bremen. She completed her doctorate with a thesis on analogue and digital writing as a motif in children’s and young adult literature. Her recent publications deal with intersectionality and alterity in children’s and young adult novels.