Begabte Figuren in Literatur und Unterricht

The question of giftedness and the gifted has been preoccupying educational and cultural studies for some time: What does it mean to be gifted? What are the different forms of giftedness? And what can successful support look like? However, research also shows that giftedness is not least a construct that allows for several model formations depending on different perspectives. The fact that giftedness and gifted characters have gained increasing importance in children's and youth literature has only been taken into account by researchers in recent years, despite early studies. Starting with well-known characters, such as Andreas Steinhöfel's Rico und Oskar, constructs of giftedness processed in literature and the media are examined and the interplay of social discourse and artistic reflection is looked at. From the point of view of reading and literature didactics, but also from a pedagogical point of view, the study of children's and young people's literature offers, in addition to important insights into a current topic, above all new learning opportunities for an intensive study of special literary characters and the abilities and characteristics attributed to them. With this volume, the German-Swiss research group Begabung in Literatur und Medien (BegaLuM) aims to advance research on giftedness and the promotion of giftedness in literary and media-aesthetic fields and, at the same time, to establish it more firmly in literature education. In doing so, it makes a contribution both to the systematisation of literary representations of (highly) gifted characters and to the utilisation of hitherto unnoticed didactic potential.