Un libro poco edificante. Historia de un niñito bueno. Historia de un niñito malo de Mark Twain

Abstract

Definitions of humour, especially black humour, are based on its transgressive power against hierarchies and the rules that organise reality. Humour questions and destabilises established orders. There are no truths, dogmas or laws that cannot be brought into question through a humorous interjection. Words that demystify, downplay and unmask those other words: the ones that claim to express unquestionable, universal truth.
From the moment children's literature is produced, as it is disseminated and read, it is subjected to a series of restrictions, all of which stem from historical and cultural conceptions regarding child readers. The dubious and arbitrary nature of such restrictions is not always acknowledged and the limits imposed on children's books are often claimed to be universal and natural, and therefore defining, definitive and unquestionable. There is a children's literature, whether written specially for them or subsequently adopted by them, which undermines the principles regarding content and literary procedures that condition the production and reception of texts for children. Much of this literature relies on the irreverence of humour, especially in its most unrestrained form: black humour. One example of this literature that reflects on itself and on the connections that we, as adults, make with children through the literary word, is Mark Twain's book: The Story Of A Good Little Boy. The Story Of A Bad Little Boy.