As lições interculturais de contos tradicionais “vertidos” em literatura infantil

The myths and the legends that authors so often translate into ‘world stories’ of particular national contexts, tend to preserve untouched some parts of the tales from oral tradition, especially with regard to negative reactions to intercultural dialogue, reactions to difference and diversity and to representations of social justice and injustice. The authors elaborate on some findings from their published book “Literatura Infantil e Educacao Intercultural: Vivemos num MundoSemEsconderijos”/“Child ren’s literature and Intercultural Education: We live in a world without hiding-places”, to highlight how critical intercultural incidents are presented and solved in ‘national’ Portuguese folktales adapted for children and young people as children’s fiction. The texts analysed are essentially the following: “Historias Tradicionais Portuguesas Contadas de Novo”, “A Machadinha e a Menina Tonta e o Cordao Dourado”, and “Fiz das Pernas Coracao” and they are written about in the context of ‘traditional’ Portuguese folktales under pressure from the new cultural framework of ‘lusofonia’, i.e. Portuguese speaking nations in the world.