Me and Alien: Confrontation and Convergence of Images in the Character System of Modern German and Czech Childrens Literature

The development to the analysis of the development of conflict situations in children’s literary works, provided that unusual “alien” characters appear in them. Special attention is paid to the problem of transformation of the characters’ images and their worldview. The works of modern German and Czech writers were chosen as the research material: Eine Woche voller Samstage (1973), Am Samstag kam das Sams zurück (1980) by Paul Maar, Der Bärbeiß (2013) by Annette Pehnt, Bertík a chmuchadlo (2014) by Petra Soukupova. The study sets several tasks: to understand the essence of conflict situations, to analyze the process and results of changing the worldview of “heroes-wards” under the influence of “heroes-guides”, to demonstrate the importance of the appearance of “aliens” for conflict resolution. The article proves the following theses: in the system of characters of the work, the appearance of an “alien” is necessary, since it is he who is able to resolve the conflict by changing the internal attitude of other characters, as a result of which the transition of the “alien” into the category of “one’s own” is carried out. Using the example of the material under consideration, the following conclusions and observations are formulated: the fear, rejection and curiosity of the central characters in relation to the “alien” characters are gradually replaced by trust and sympathy. The main factor stimulating this process is the opportunity for the main characters to listen to themselves and look at themselves from a “foreign” position.