The death motiv in the German and Turkish children literature

Death is a phenomenon that has a universal effect on the living being. From different views, this term was examined. Both in a concrete sense and in an abstract sense. It was also illustrated in various works or films etc. Different disciplines have also worked on it in their own research direction and purpose. One of these disciplines is literature. The term death is a motif that is treated in the literature for children and adolescents. In these works, through various fictions, the motive death is directly or indirectly processed. The function of children's literature is, in a sense, to prepare children for life. Children identify with the characters in the works; they try to understand life, good or bad. Another point to mention about death is that the meaning of that term is not what it used to be. Like the other words and their meanings, this term has changed as well. That the attitude of societies both the nature of the experience and of courses the rituals etc. has changed. There are several reasons for that. But especially man has changed. The temporal and spatial developments or changes have led to cultural change. Since people used to be much more likely to die than today, it was more unusual. But today, unfortunately, it is not uncommon for you to be an adult when you first come into contact with the deaths of a family member. In particular, this process is very dominating among the rituals. How this came about and whether this is a consequence of globalization can be discussed. In this work, three works of German children's and youth literature and five works of Turkish children's and youth literature are edited. In this sense, in some works the term death is given directly and in some indirectly. In these two societies, whose culture, insight, and belief are different, the theme of death, dread, and the fact of death is presented and how it is conveyed to the children. Death is reproduced in children's stories, predominantly as illness, age or as the cause of a traffic accident. During playback, the contrastive settings were discussed. In the researched works special attention is paid to age, to the psyche, to the cognitive and affective perception. Death has an effect on every living being, but in children and adults it is perceived differently in the emotional universe. In this sense, the insight of children and adults is different and the mourning after death is lived differently. In the specified works, except the term death, still on mourning, bereavement and the resurrection after the mourning are received as cases. Keywords Children's literature, death, dying, child and death, grief.