Pajdocentryczne środki poetyckie

Abstract

The article discusses the ever present animisation and personification found in the literature addressed to children, which comprises broad domains of the psychological and physical life. Cosmos is endowed with an awareness of its existence, with abilities to think and speak, and moreover with dreams, desires, and longings. The trick of anthropomorphization, i.e. presentation of things, animals, and phenomena in human form, or personification consisting in giving them human features, has a distinct nature here: it makes them alike children, and their behaviour is a reflection of the child’s reactions and behaviour. The pragmatic aspect of anthropomorphization and personification is “the reader’s making him/herself at home” in the portrayed world which is either brought closer to the reader, or the reader becomes equal with the phenomena of the cosmos. Such a way of creation is applied by all authors writing for children, though, of course to various degrees. As the anthropomorphized world (of things, phenomena, animals) still retains its features inherent to its kind, the course of action is always surprising and interesting. What turned out to be rather complicated was exposing and describing the particular functions and methods of animisation, personification, or de-personification in the world depicted in the selected works, because they often constitute a creative unity. While analysis and interpretation prove that that they are connected with the poetic role of the theme of family, the literary character - child, with the props of its autonomous cosmos, with the distinctness of perception and creation of the child’s world of imagination. Thus, in this outline, animisation and personification were discussed in the aspect of the distinctive features of literary reality virtualising the little reader.