Origins and Developments of Children’s Literature

Assessment: coursework (5000 words in total)
This module offers an introduction to the complex origins of, and subsequent developments in, children?s literature. It addresses the ways in which children?s literature has historically been used as a forum for transmitting and challenging dominant ideologies. In order to understand the current state and status of children?s literature (which students will be able to explore in the third year through the specialist module, Subversive Children?s Literature) it is necessary to have some knowledge of how it evolved; why and when genres developed, and how patterns and stereotypes were established and perpetuated. This module outlines the major developments in children?s literature from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, by which time children?s literature as we know it had come into being. Texts studied are likely to include Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) and J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy (1911).