“And the friendship reigned between them”

The poetics of affection in the children's works of Gloria Fuertes

Abstract

The article has the premise to analyze the facets of laughter in children’s books by the Spanish writer Gloria Fuertes (1917 - 1998). Owner of a wide book collection, the selection focuses on her children's stories, responsible for making her a media personality in the 1970s. For that, we select her first award-winning children’s work, Cangura Para Todos (1968), which received the Diploma of Honor from Hans Christian Andersen International Children's Literature Award. The book integrates fifteen short stories that will guide the text development, trying to demonstrate that social criticism is inserted in a peculiar way; in other words, it manifests itself predominantly through writing that deconstructs stereotypes, showing animals characters that break the traditional expectations of children’s genre. This manifestation, usually, occurs by means of an affective language, able to restore the lost unity between man and nature, besides leading children to a critical reflection. Inserted in a social and political context, marked by the authoritarian regime of the Franco era, Gloria Fuertes presents, in her creative versions, reflections about the devaluation/exploitation of female subject in labor relations, as well as the abandonment and absence of rights aimed at infant protection. Her work is always permeated by respect-for-differences claims and for a culture of peace, using, for this purpose, an ambiguous writing of apparent ingenuity, masked by a humorous tone, but marked by a blunt social criticism and a harmonious spirit of solidarity.