Imaginierte Gemeinschaften in den slavischen Kinder- und Jugendliteraturen

Summary At the outset, the introduction to the Main topic explores the social significance of children’s and youth literature within its cultural contexts. It highlights the role of children’s and youth literature in the socialization process and its often supportive relationship with the prevailing ideological discourse (such as in socialist children’s and youth literature). The introduction then examines two models of imagined communities in postsocialist children’s and youth literature. On one hand, there are communities born from artistic imagination, offering alternatives to existing societies through the fantastic, including utopian or dystopian visions. On the other hand, there are narratives that present real-world communities, either affirming or questioning how collective identities are constructed. Finally, the five contributions in the Special Issue are introduced as examples of these two types of imagined communities and are summarized.