"It Never Hurts to Keep Looking for Sunshine": The Motif of Depression in Works for Children and Youth Inspired by Classical Antiquity

The paper analyzes a handful of works for children and youth that are based on mythology and deal with depression, a topic that is becoming more frequent in contemporary children’s and young adults’ culture, mainly because of the need to break the mental health taboo. These are the newest edition of Laura Orvieto’s Storie di bambini molto antichi (2014, first published in 1937), Rachel Smythe’s digital comics Lore Olympus (2018–2020), Patricia Satjawatcharaphong’s short animation Reflection (2010), and the webcomic series Therapy created by Anastasia Gorshkova (2019–2020). They provide examples from literary and audio-visual culture for very young readers and more adult teenagers and youth, raising the issue of deep sadness utilizing storytelling and not in a didactic way. Some of the protagonists struggling with the problem are far from lively characters in conventional interpretations of the myths (including Hades, Hydra, or Medusa), so the texts play upon stereotypes entrenched in the culture. It appears that children’s works inspired by classical antiquity have significant interpretative potential and educational value – as well as the ability to surprise the audience.

»Nikoli ni narobe, če še naprej iščeš sonce«: Motiv depresije v delih za otroke in mladino, vezanih na antiko Prispevek analizira več del za otroke in mladino, ki izhajajo iz mitologije in govorijo o depresiji, temi, ki stopa vse bolj v ospredje tudi v sodobni kulturi otrok in mladostnikov, predvsem zaradi potrebe po odpravi tabuja v zvezi z duševnim zdravjem. To so nova izdaja dela Laure Orvieto Storie di bambini molto antichi (2014, prvič objavljena leta 1937), digitalni stripi Rachel Smythe Lore Olympus (2018–2020), kratka animacija Patricie Satjawatcharaphong Reflection (2010) ter Therapy, serija spletnih stripov Anastasie Gorshkove (2019–2020). Gre za primere iz literarne in avdiovizualne kulture za zelo mlade bralce ter najstnike in mlade odrasle, ki vprašanje globoke žalosti izpostavljajo z uporabo zgodb in na nedidaktičen način. Nekateri protagonisti, ki se spopadajo s to težavo (vključno s Hadom, Hidro ali Meduzo), so prikazani zelo drugače kot v običajnih in živahnejših interpretacijah mitov, saj besedila spretno preigravajo stereotipe, ki so se ustalili v kulturi. Zdi se, da imajo otroška dela, ki jih navdihuje klasična antika, velik interpretativni potencial in izobraževalno vrednost – pa tudi sposobnost za presenečanje občinstva.