Stereotipuri în construcția imaginii copilului în revistele din România anilor ’50

This study examines the evolution of child protagonists in Romanian children's magazines published between 1950 and 1960. In Romania, children's literature became integrated into a centralized publishing system with the establishment of the communist regime in 1948–1949, when specialized publishing houses and age-specific magazines for schoolchildren were created. Throughout this period, socialist realism remained the dominant literary model, shaping child characters as embodiments of ideological ideals rather than as figures of playfulness or imagination. During the Stalinist years, magazines promoted heroic child protagonists—patriotic, fearless, and devoted to the socialist cause—while the post-Stalinist period favored morally exemplary and responsible children actively engaged in collectivization, industrialization, and other processes of social transformation. Gradually, more contemplative child characters emerged, serving as observers and symbolic transmitters of propaganda. By analyzing magazines such as Licurici, Pogonici, Cravata Roșie, and Luminița, the study demonstrates how children's periodicals promoted the model of the “new man” through both original works and numerous translations from Russian, while limiting literary and visual diversity in favor of socialist realist ideology.