Portuguese children's literature during the Dictatorship: censorship and resistance voices

Abstract

 This study discusses how portuguese children’s literature authors have succeeded in eluding censorship during the dictatorship period (1926-1974), by publishing written texts which shared hidden messages with their readers, messages that could not have been conveyed and discussed otherwise. The objectives of this study are to divulge children’s literature texts, published during the dictatorship and read nowadays by children; and which themes and values are shared in these works with younger readers; to understand which mechanisms were used by the authors to evade censorship and to share their message with children. As a methodology, we have privileged the hermeneutical analysis, thereby developing a critical and reflexive reading of the texts. From this analysis we have concluded that these works approach themes like racism and the promotion of the equality among mankind, like the defense of freedom and the resistance to oppression, and the exhortation to peace. The authors have cultivated a symbolic language, metaphors, ambiguity, humor, and irony as mechanisms to reach younger readers and to share their message.