Keywords
third space
liminality
Lev Vygotsky
Roger Caillois
utopian literature
children’s literature
ecological imagery
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper examines the symbolic, social, and political dimensions of play in the children’s novel Šetnja kroz budućnost (A Walk through the Future), originally published in instalments in 1924–1925 and attributed to the Serbian social democrat and union educator Dragutin Vladisavljević. Existing research has identified this novel as the first science-fiction social utopia in children’s literature within the Serbian and broader Yugoslav context. The aim of this paper is to explore how two distinct theories of play – one articulated by Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky and the other proposed by French literary theorist Roger Caillois – can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of liminal, or third spaces in the narrative. Lastly, the paper examines how this poetics of space enables insight into the novel’s proto-ecological imagery and proto-environmental consciousness.
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