Due to the current world situation and its impact on adolescents, I have decided to conduct a detailed analysis of the war motif and its portrayal in selected works of contemporary Slovene and English youth literature. Based on selected works of various literary genres (picture books, graphic novels, and young adult novels), the thesis examines how realistically and explicitly war is depicted in texts aimed at different age groups, followed by an analysis of the main literary characters and how they deal with war and its consequences. In addition, the thesis focuses on the role of adults and friendship in the selected works, the impact of war experience on the lives of the literary characters, as well as the literary structure and style of the chosen texts. The selected works from English and Slovene literature include picture books Room on Our Rock (2018), Anton! (2014), and Arsenije! (2017), graphic novels When Stars Are Scattered (2020) and Superga (2015), and the young adult novels The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006) and Črna vrana (2018). The analysis shows that the realism and accuracy of the depiction of war are influenced more by the intended reading level than by the literary genre itself. War has a significant impact on the main literary characters. At the same time, one of the key features of young adult literature is present in most of the works – optimistic endings.
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