Module 1: History of Childhood, Children’s Literature, and Foundational Texts
| The genre of children’s literature is vast, encompassing many sub-genres and targeting different audiences. From board books, picture books, chapter books, to middle-grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction, from conduct books to dystopian fiction, books aimed at young, developing readers have had massive educational, cultural, social, and artistic influences for the past 400 years. For this course, Lewis Carroll’s two Alice books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are two foundational texts that being the exploration into children’s literature. This is due to the massive influence of these books on subsequent authors and in contemporary media. The Alice books contain excellent examples of social criticism, poetry , strong female characters, anthropomorphism, and the bridging of fantasy and realism, which will aid you in discussing and analyzing other works of children’s literature.
This module will cover the history of children’s literature, different social views of children, literary analysis, and Alice in Wonderland. To help you this semester, here is a page of scholarly sources that can help you with research. |
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