Children’s Classics Across Time and Cultures

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

Juvenile literature is a compelling domain underpinning every reader’s imagination. Children’s classics – books from different cultures and languages that combine fantasy with reality, humour and nonsense with lyricism, and linguistic invention with philosophy – constitute an important part of the world’s literary heritage. This course proposes revisiting childhood's literary lands to set them in context and appreciate them anew.

Main aims of the course:

• to familiarise Students with selected children’s classics in a broad historical, social and cultural context (especially different themes and aspects of children’s classics; mechanisms of canon formation and its culture-forming powers);
• to develop and refine the ability to analyse, interpret and evaluate literary texts with particular reference to the specificity of children’s literature;
• to develop Students’ capacity to relate what they have learnt to their own cultural and linguistic context (world versus national/local canon/s);
• to practice the ability to discuss, exchange ideas and formulate opinions based on the materials read.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Basic knowledge of children’s literature, basic competence in analysing and interpreting literary texts, and English language skills at the intermediate level (B2).

Syllabus

Proposed sample class topics:

1. In the Wonderland of Nonsense – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

 

1. Neverland Revisited – Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

 

1. Somewhere Over the Rainbow – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by F.L. Baum

 

1. Growing into Nature – The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett

 

1. Wooden Humanity – The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

 

1. School Horrors – Matilda by Roald Dahl

 

1. A Mighty Child – King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak

 

1. Loving Wild – Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

 

1. Against the Tide – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

 

1. A Child and the Book – The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

 

1. Drawing the Secrets of Life (and Death) – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

Reading list

The topics and a detailed reading list will be given during the first class.

• Canon Constitution and Canon Change in Children’s Literature, ed. by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Anja Müller, London and New York: Routledge 2019.
• Carpenter Humphrey, Secret Gardens. A Study of the Golden Age of Children’s Literature, London: Faber and Faber 2012.
• International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, ed. by Peter Hunt, London and New York: Routledge 2005 (selected entries).
• Keywords for Children’s Literature ed. by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul, New York and London: New York University Press 2011.
• Lathey Gillian, The Role of Translators in Children's Literature. Invisible Storytellers, London and New York: Routledge 2010.
• Lerer Seth, Children’s Literature. A Reade’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press  2008.
• Nikolajeva Maria, Children’s Literature Comes of Age. Toward a New Aesthetic, London and New York: Routledge 2016.
• Nodelman Perry, The Hidden Adult. Defining Children’s Literature, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press 2008.
• O’Sullivan Emer, Comparative Children’s Literature, trans. by Anthea Bell, London and New York: Routledge 2005.
• The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature and Culture, ed. by Claudia Nelson, Elisabeth Wesseling and Andrea Mei-Ying Wu, London and New York: Routledge 2023 (selected chapters).
• Wall Barbara, The Narrator’s Voice. The Dilemma of Children’s Fiction, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 1991.