Du non-lieu de la ville à son habitabilité par des enfants

Abstract

Never in history have there been more people living in cities around the world. And yet, paradoxically, children have never been so excluded from urban spaces. Between the (19)50s and the (19)70s, there are numerous examples – particularly in novels, but also in a few picture books – of wanderings and games played by children in city streets. In more recent picture books (from the past decade or so), however, the city is rarely a subject or a territory. Children, particularly when they appear in human rather than animal form, are rarely depicted alone in urban spaces. Since these characters are often lost in their own thoughts, they sometimes experience the city in a detached manner, even if the illustrator invites the reader to look at the city attentively and to move beyond an impression of ordinariness. The city is also described as negative because of its noises and smells, or even as dangerous. It is only when the narrative is set in a 1950s version of the city that it can become a place of sociability and appropriation through playing and meandering. However, perhaps as a result of recent proactive policies aimed at putting children back at the heart of the city, some picture books show how children can influence the reconfiguration of their neighborhoods. Other books show/demonstrate a gradual appropriation of the city through an intimate incorporation of movement and the senses. Picture books, then, are the literary reflection of a social and political view of cities in transition, redefined by and for children.

Keywords

• city
• geographic mobility
• picturebook
• body
• noise