The paper “Landscape as a Carrier of Heritage in Children’s Literature” by Associate Professor Valentina Majdenić, PhD, was presented at the scientific conference “9th Days of Šime and Ante Starčević: Landscape in Education and Education in the Landscape”

The paper is based on the thesis that landscape in children’s literature does not merely represent the spatial backdrop of the narrative, but actively participates as a bearer of cultural, historical, and identity heritage. Through the analysis of selected works of children’s literature and older school readers, among which Perva štanka za katoličansku školsku mladost (1860) is particularly distinguished, the study explores the ways in which natural, local, and cultural landscapes shape children’s perception of space, sense of belonging, and collective memory.

Special attention is devoted to the symbolic, educational, and identity-related functions of landscape, as well as its role in transmitting traditional values, local narratives, and intangible cultural heritage. The paper examines how rural, local, and religious spaces participate in the formation of the cultural identity of young readers, and in what ways literary texts mediate the experience of space through aesthetic, emotional, and educational dimensions.

Particular consideration is given to the role of nineteenth-century school readers in shaping children’s relationship towards nature, homeland, and community, whereby landscape assumes an important cultural-memory and educational function. The paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach situated at the intersection of literary theory, cultural geography, and heritage studies, with an emphasis on the interconnection between space, identity, and social memory. In conclusion, it is emphasized that children’s literature and school readers play an important role in raising awareness of landscape as a space of memory, identity, and continuity of cultural values.