The Billiken Magazine Centenary Project: Children's Literature and Childhood in Argentina 1919-2019

《阿根廷Billiken》是世界上历史最悠久的儿童杂志，即将迎来它的百年诞辰，这为我们提供了一个独特的机会，让我们通过儿童历史和阿根廷儿童文学史的视角来审视阿根廷百年的历史。该项目将探讨Billiken的短篇和连载故事的文本和图像如何反映和塑造杂志对阿根廷童年的不断变化的建构，并将其设想为创造理想阿根廷公民的阶段。这项研究将证明Billiken在阿根廷儿童文学的发展中发挥了重要作用，尽管这一贡献甚至没有得到它自己的出版社Editorial Atlántida的承认，该出版社传统上在书籍和杂志上保持着儿童文学在意识形态和文化上的区别。Billiken由Constancio Vigil于1919年创立，Constancio Vigil是阿根廷儿童文学和流行杂志出版的先驱，他的目标是创建一个商业上成功的出版物，因为它的娱乐内容对儿童有吸引力，并且作为一种教育资源对父母和教师有吸引力。尽管比利肯从未得到国家教育委员会的正式认可，但这一策略非常成功，以至于一代又一代的教师将比利肯纳入他们的课程，使其成为一代又一代学生的必读书目。令人难以置信的是，作为一份如此处于阿根廷民族认同核心地位的出版物，其对阿根廷儿童文学的贡献与教育学和道德的关键主题相交，该杂志的短篇和连刊故事的文字和图像从未被研究过。Billiken目前正处于有史以来销量最低的关键时刻。为了拯救《Billiken》杂志，Atlántida正在为Billiken开发一种交互式跨媒体战略，以接触到印刷以外的消费者。这项研究将通过对这一进程的开发和实施的特权而得到加强，并将把这家商业出版社与关于印刷出版适应数字时代的最新学术研究联系起来，否则Atlántida将由于地理和语言障碍而无法获得这些研究。在项目期间，我将与Atlántida的编辑合作，为学术界以外的受众共同制作出版物。这些是：(1)过去一百年来在比利肯出版的十篇西班牙语短篇小说集，并将这些故事置于其历史和政治背景中进行介绍；(2)Biblioteca Billiken双语小说集的两卷首集（一本来自英国，一本来自阿根廷，为语言学习者和年轻读者改编），包括解释性注释和合著的序言。这两篇文章都将在阿根廷的Atlántida网站上发表，以配合比利肯的百年纪念，并将明确地与我的研究项目联系起来。在英国，该项目的主题是儿童出版的未来，将为学术界以外的研究传播提供重点，因为这是商业出版商和儿童图书购买公众共同关心的问题。该项目将把Atlántida图书部门的负责人与她的英国同行聚集在一起，讨论这些跨国问题，并寻求在儿童文学领域工作的感兴趣的公众成员和学者的意见。

The forthcoming centenary of Argentina's Billiken, the world's longest running children's magazine, offers a unique opportunity to see one hundred years of Argentine history through the lens of the history of childhood and the history of children's literature in Argentina. This project will explore how the text and images of Billiken's short and serialised stories reflect and shape the magazine's changing construction of Argentine childhood, envisaged as a stage in the creation of the ideal Argentine citizen. The research will argue that Billiken was instrumental in the development of Argentine children's literature, even though this contribution was unrecognised even by its own publishing house, Editorial Atlántida, which traditionally maintained an ideological and cultural distinction between children's literature in books and in magazines.Billiken was founded in 1919 by Constancio Vigil, a pioneer in both Argentine children's literature and popular magazine publishing, who aimed to create a commercially successful publication which was attractive to children because of its entertainment content and attractive to parents and teachers as an educational resource. Although Billiken was never officially sanctioned by the national education council, this strategy was so successful that generations of teachers incorporated Billiken into their lessons, making it required reading for generations of school children. Incredibly, for a publication so ensconced at the heart of Argentine national identity, and whose contribution to Argentine children's literature intersects with the key themes of pedagogy and morality, the words and images of the magazine's short and serialised stories have never been previously studied. Billiken is currently at a critical moment with its lowest ever sales. In order to save the magazine, Atlántida is in the process of developing an interactive transmedia strategy for Billiken to reach its consumers beyond print. The research will be enhanced by privileged access to the development and implementation of this process and will connect this commercial publishing house to the latest academic research on the adaptation of print publishing to the digital age which Atlántida would otherwise not access due to geographical and linguistic barriers.During the project I will work with Atlántida editors on co-produced publications for audiences beyond academia. These are: (1) a Spanish-language collection of ten short stories published in Billiken over the last hundred years with introductions placing the stories in their historical and political context and (2) the inaugural two volumes of the Biblioteca Billiken bilingual collection (one novel from the UK and one from Argentina, adapted for language learners and younger readers) including explanatory notes and co-authored prologues. Both will be published by Atlántida in Argentina to coincide with the Billiken centenary and will be explicitly linked to my research project. In the UK, the project's theme of the future of children's publishing will provide the focus of the dissemination of the research beyond academia as this is a concern shared by commercial publishers and the children's book-buying general public. The project will bring the Head of Atlántida's Books division together with her UK counterparts to debate these transnational concerns and seek the input of interested members of the public and academics working in the field of children's literature.