On the Word-Formation Aspect of Stylistic Choices in Children’s Poetry by Danuta Wawiłow

Abstract

For a long time there used to be a prevalent opinion in literary studies that children’s literature does not deserve any particular attention from scholars. It had been stated that it only serves entertainment and that sometimes it is characterized by a moralizing tone which depreciates its artistic worth. In the article dealing with the process of word formation in Danuta Wawiłow’s poetry, I try to prove that the literature addressed to the youngest readers (sometimes called “the fourth literature”) contradicts this stereotype. The fact that the implied recipient of such works is a child does not mean that it cannot raise serious problems. My aim was to point to the complexity of word-formation procedures through which the author of Wędrówka sought to reconstruct the way that child creates words in the first years of his life while discovering new things, occurrences and processes.