Open Access

Agnes Bidmon

• Lange Zeit herrschte im Forschungsdiskurs die Meinung vor, dass Kinder- und Jugendliteratur »aus sich selbst heraus verständlich sei und keiner literaturwissenschaftlichen Interpretationskunst bedürfe« (Gansel / Korte 2009, S. 7). Aus diesem Grund standen Fragen nach der Machart der Texte im Verhältnis zu Fragen nach ihren »Inhalte[n], Themen, pädagogische[n] Strategien und so genannte[n] ›Botschaften‹« (ebd.) häufig im Hintergrund. Diese Vorstellung hat sich mittlerweile jedoch gewandelt, was nicht zuletzt auf eine grundlegende Veränderung in der literarischen Landschaft seit Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts zurückzuführen ist...
• This article focusses on a recent trend in contemporary literature: docufictional storytelling. It argues, in a first step, that this trend can be understood as a reflected way of dealing with the concept of reality in a highly virtual and digital world. Docufictional novels rely on documentary as well as fictional strategies, and interweave them via intramedial, intermedial and transmedial approaches. By doing so, the texts reconstruct a real reality to which their readers have no direct temporal or spatial access. At the same time, they show that reality can be only a construction, even if authentic material is included. Providing access to reality can be seen as one of the main goals in the literary production addressing young readers. In a second step, this article analyses contemporary German young adult literature and examines the forms and functions of docufictional storytelling, which can be found in those texts. It focusses especially on two novels by Dirk Reinhardt, Edelweißpiraten (2012) and Train Kids (2015), and concludes that this mode of narration between entertainment and information offers young readers the opportunity to develop their media and discourse competencies.