Abstract
<jats:p>The present text compares the searches for the definition of the “literature for children and adolescents” concept in several texts from different periods: the preface to Petar Dimitrov’s book “Our Children’s Literature. Part I. Poetry: Representatives” (1927), the introduction to the book “Bulgarian Children’s and Adolescent Prose” (1979; 1987) and the article “State of Literature, Writer’s Problems...” from the book “Critical Reviews. Perspectives on Children’s Literature” (1985) by Simeon Yanev, the articles “Special, but Indivisible” and “Thoughts Before the Holiday”, included in the volume “Children’s Literature. History and Criticism” (1975) by Nikolay Yankov. The texts mentioned unfold different approaches to defining the literature for children and adolescents: through its addressee, genre, stylistic and thematic features, affiliation, but also distinctiveness in the general literary process, through the paradoxes and grounds for problematizing its status. The present text, part of a larger study, works with the “literature for children and adolescents” term instead of the “children’s literature” term due to the terminological inaccuracy reproduced in the critical articles under review, which reflects the confusion between author and addressee.</jats:p>