The Billiken Magazine Centenary Project: Children's Literature and Childhood in Argentina 1919-2019

The forthcoming centenary of Argentina's Billiken, the world's longest running children's magazine, offers a unique opportunity to see one hundred years of Argentine history through the lens of the history of childhood and the history of children's literature in Argentina. This project will explore how the text and images of Billiken's short and serialised stories reflect and shape the magazine's changing construction of Argentine childhood, envisaged as a stage in the creation of the ideal Argentine citizen. The research will argue that Billiken was instrumental in the development of Argentine children's literature, even though this contribution was unrecognised even by its own publishing house, Editorial Atlántida, which traditionally maintained an ideological and cultural distinction between children's literature in books and in magazines.
Billiken was founded in 1919 by Constancio Vigil, a pioneer in both Argentine children's literature and popular magazine publishing, who aimed to create a commercially successful publication which was attractive to children because of its entertainment content and attractive to parents and teachers as an educational resource. Although Billiken was never officially sanctioned by the national education council, this strategy was so successful that generations of teachers incorporated Billiken into their lessons, making it required reading for generations of school children. Incredibly, for a publication so ensconced at the heart of Argentine national identity, and whose contribution to Argentine children's literature intersects with the key themes of pedagogy and morality, the words and images of the magazine's short and serialised stories have never been previously studied. Billiken is currently at a critical moment with its lowest ever sales. In order to save the magazine, Atlántida is in the process of developing an interactive transmedia strategy for Billiken to reach its consumers beyond print. The research will be enhanced by privileged access to the development and implementation of this process and will connect this commercial publishing house to the latest academic research on the adaptation of print publishing to the digital age which Atlántida would otherwise not access due to geographical and linguistic barriers.
During the project I will work with Atlántida editors on co-produced publications for audiences beyond academia. These are: (1) a Spanish-language collection of ten short stories published in Billiken over the last hundred years with introductions placing the stories in their historical and political context and (2) the inaugural two volumes of the Biblioteca Billiken bilingual collection (one novel from the UK and one from Argentina, adapted for language learners and younger readers) including explanatory notes and co-authored prologues. Both will be published by Atlántida in Argentina to coincide with the Billiken centenary and will be explicitly linked to my research project. In the UK, the project's theme of the future of children's publishing will provide the focus of the dissemination of the research beyond academia as this is a concern shared by commercial publishers and the children's book-buying general public. The project will bring the Head of Atlántida's Books division together with her UK counterparts to debate these transnational concerns and seek the input of interested members of the public and academics working in the field of children's literature.

1. Who will benefit from this research?

a) Editorial Atlántida, Argentina (Book and Magazine division)
b) the general public in Argentina
c) UK commercial publishers of children's literature
d) UK children's literature-buying public
e) Argentine students of English language and British Culture (secondary school and above) and, as a future extension of this project, UK students of Spanish language and Latin American Culture (A-level and above)
f) UK general public interested in Argentina

2. How will they benefit from this research?

a) Project partner Editorial Atlántida will link the co-produced publications (commemorative collection of stories and Biblioteca Billiken bilingual collection) to the Billiken Centenary in 2019, reaffirming the legacy of the magazine and creating awareness of the new transmedia strategies adopted by the magazine to meet the challenges of a children's print magazine in the digital age. These publications would not be commercially viable without the support of the project. I will connect Atlántida to the latest research on multimodality and interactivity in children's publishing to inform the future strategy for Billiken's continued survival. The invited Atlántida editor will meet with her UK counterparts to exchange knowledge and shared concerns about the future of children's publishing and with the long-term view of securing a partner to publish the Biblioteca Billiken bilingual collection in the UK.

b) Beneficiaries within the Argentine public include those who read the magazine as children and also educators, cultural commentators and politicians. They will engage with the project through the co-produced publications for audiences beyond academia and through the debates generated by media coverage of this high-profile project. The commemorative publication also seeks to make an affective link to the magazine: if parents and grandparents with fond memories of Billiken are moved to buy the commemorative edition, they may be incentivised to buy the magazine for the children in their lives.

c) For the project's symposium on Transnational Perspectives on the Future of Children's Publishing, invited speakers will join academics and publishers to debate the current challenges facing children's print literature. The invited Atlántida editor will provide a new perspective from a different cultural context and the symposium will bring together potential collaborators from academia and commercial publishing with an interest in developing future co-produced publications and materials for the children's publishing sector.

d) I will run a public engagement event during Off the Shelf, Sheffield's long-established and wide-reaching Festival of Words and will chair a round table discussion with the Atlántida editor and invited UK publishers of children's literature. Through the participation of interested members of the children's book-buying public - parents, teachers, librarians - we will be able to debate whether the industry is meting the demands of the consumer, in the context of this being a product designed and bought by adults for children, and the difficulty in ascertaining the requirements of the child end-user.

e) The project will enable the publication of the first two editions of the Biblioteca Billiken bilingual collection. This will be of immediate benefit to Argentine students of English language and UK literature and culture. In the longer term Atlántida and I will work to secure a UK partner for this to be published in the UK.

f) I will create opportunities for those in the UK with a general interest in Argentina - perhaps derived from travel, sport or dance - to engage with the country's history and politics through telling the story of the world's oldest children's magazine. I will reach a non-specialist audience through the University's Arts Enterprise storytelling workshops and the 'Tales from the Ivory Tower' storytelling performances