Intergenerationality, age and environment in children’s picturebooks

Following work by scholars such as Vanessa Joosen (“Age Studies”) and engaging with recent critiques of the child in time, this chapter brings aging studies and children’s literature studies together to explore intergenerationality and what it may mean for our understanding of ourselves as temporal and relational beings. Furthermore, we bring an ecocritical perspective to this inquiry and consider how children’s literature about intergenerational connection may help to imagine ourselves beyond human time and space. We consider the representation of the grandparent and grandchild in Stardust (UK, 2017) and Jiichan no naisho no umi (Japan, 1993), paying specific attention to the employment of the natural world in both text and illustrations. Our analysis reveals that the temporal convergence at the heart of the intergenerational relationship is closely associated with non-human, even planetary, time. Natural spaces are partly nostalgic in these books, but they also present the possibility of other ways of thinking about time beyond the linear, anthropocentric model. Our comparison of Japanese and UK texts also suggests how adult-child relationships and the mobilization of the natural world in their depictions are contextually specific. Ultimately, the chapter reiterates the importance of thinking about aging from life-course and posthumanist perspectives.