Abstract:
This thesis is about the catholic missionary periodical ‘De Kleine Apostel’, part of international catholic organisation ‘De Heilige Kindsheid, between 1850 and 1966, and how this periodical tried to involve Dutch children in the catholic mission. The aim of involving children was to gain moral and financial support for ‘heathen children’ overseas. While the periodical existed from 1850 on, ‘De Kleine Apostel’ only started aiming its contents to children instead of grown-ups from 1920 onwards, developing a ‘childfriendly’ approach. ‘De Kleine Apostel’ tried to connect with children in several ways, most importantly through the representation of ‘heathen children’ as inferior, but at the same time as the catholic equal of Dutch children, with Catholicism as ‘cultural circuit breaker’. This was also visible in the creation of two ‘imagined communities’ inside the world of the periodical; a community of catholic Dutch children and a community of Dutch and ‘heathen’ children alike.
