English | Children's Literature L390 | 15888 |
Kanwit/Horrocks/Stanton/Wadewitz L390 15888 CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE 10:10a-11:00a MW (150 students) 3 cr., A&H. The field
of children’s literature presents a wealth of texts that are
both linguistically satisfying and theoretically rich.
Children’s literature raises profound questions, including those
about life, death, and marriage. Indeed, our focus in this
course is not teaching literature to children, but why
children’s literature is so powerful and why, therefore, we do
teach it to children. We will study three themes in particular:
conceptions of learning and education; children and adventure;
and children, cruelty, and violence. We will examine fairy
tales, picture books, childhood poems, nursery rhymes, film
adaptations of children’s literature, and longer readings by
such authors as Lewis Carroll, R. L. Stevenson, L. Frank Baum,
Madeleine L’Engle, J. M. Barrie, Lois Lowry, and Lemony Snicket.
Course requirements are careful reading, weekly written response