Daily Chicken: The Cultural Transmission of Bourgeois Family Values in Adaptations of Literary Classics for Children, 1850–1950.

Literature is a significant agent in the transmission of culture. Through literature expected behavior and patterns of life are passed on from generation to generation. The anticipated power of children’s literature is even stronger. Socializing the target audience has always been one of its main aims. Consequently, books for children are governed by dominant social, cultural, and educational norms. This article explores the reciprocity between cultural transmission and the transmission of literature. It examines adaptations of international literary classics in their capacity of cultural intermediaries between old masterpieces and young audiences. Focusing on ways of transmitting family ideologies to children, the repository of Dutch adaptations of Reynard the fox, Till Eulenspiegel, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver’s travels serves as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]