Who killed Snowy? as a children's detective fiction for adults: On the contemporary Czech detective crossover
Abstrakt
In the Czech literary context, children's detective fiction became popular in 1920s. Since then, the genre has undergone many changes.
The contemporary Czech children's detective fiction typically differs from the detective fiction "for adults" to such an extent it might be even considered a different genre (such as adventure, romance, humor, puzzle book) altogether, since it shows significant differences in terms of plot, chronotope, protagonists etc. The specifics of children's detective fiction arise from various causes: firstly, the books aspire to be as much child-authentic as possible.
Secondly, they simplify the formal features of the texts to make them easily accessible for their primary audience. Thirdly, they grind the edges of "inappropriate" themes that are typical of detective fiction (death, violence, sex etc.).
All these adjustments are made even though children actually enjoy reading "adult" version of the genre. Recently, several books that push the borders of the genre have been published.
This presentation finds inspiration in John G. Cawelti's cultural approach to genre formula and explores which borders those are and how they have been pushed.
It deals with Petra Soukupová's novel "Kdo zabil Snížka?" (Who killed Snowy?) as an example of a "crossover" detective fiction. The book had been published simultaneously with an adult's novel "Nejlepší pro všechny" (Best for Everybody) and the two books share their fictional universe.
The children's book thus invites adult readers as well. Therefore, it may bring about several topics other children's books remain silent about such as physical and mental disability, infidelity, etc.
However, the book also violates various genre conventions, as they were described by Christopher Routledge (2001). Consequently, the book becomes more "adult-friendly".