Literature for Children

3 credits · Undergraduate

A critical study of literature written or adopted for children and young adult readers. Emphasis will be placed on the historical significance of key forms, such as fables, folk stories, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes, as well as later developments in drama, poetry, and prose fiction, including fantasy, realism, animal stories, historical fiction, and the young adult "problem novel." The interplay between oral, written, and visual texts will be considered, as will the cultural contexts that inform changing attitudes towards children, childhood, and adolescence.