‘동심을 지닌 성인’은 아동문학의 독자인가 = Should ‘an adult with child’s heart’ be treated as the reader of children’s literature?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper is designed to answer the question of whether ‘an adult with child’s heart’ is a true reader of children’s literature. As a result of this research, the children’s fiction praising children’s innocence and the children’s fiction about adult’s reminiscing hobbies are all aimed at ‘childlike adults with children’s innocence’, or, to be more precise, ‘the adults who want to have children’s innocence.’ Therefore, such works should be classified a “Fairy Tales for Adults.” The reason why the works that mainly depict adult emotions, feelings, and adult’s desires were produced and distributed under the name of ‘children’s fiction’ was because ‘an adult with child’s heart’ was included as the readers for children’s literature when defining the scope of readers for children’s literature. That’s why children’s fiction writers and textbook editors misunderstood such works as good children’s literature. When defining children’s literature, ‘an adult with a child’s heart’ should be excluded from the readers’ list.