Що е детска литература и какво да правим с нея (според англоезичната теория и критика на ХХ-ти и началото на ХХІ век)

The paper offers a survey of the most salient trends in children's literature criticism and theory in English over the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century. Drawing parallels with the development of children's literature criticism in Bulgaria, it establishes some typological and thematic similarities until the 1940s and traces the subsequent divergence caused by the dramatic changes in the Bulgarian sociopolitical and cultural scene. The main focus is on the diverse ways in which the theory boom since the 1970s has transformed the conceptualization of the field of children's literature in Anglophone research - a process from which Bulgaria has remained largely alienated. The paper sides with the position that a more active reception of scholarly thought in this field is an important way of overcoming its current stagnation in Bulgaria.