English 180 - Fall, 2012

Children

Class Information

Instructor: Dolan, Frances
CRN: 43459
Time: TR 1:40-3:00
Location: 2205 Haring

Description

This course offers an introduction to the concept of literature written specifically for children and to some of the classics of this literature in English, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Harry Potter. We will read at a brisk clip! But there will be time to savor our reading and our analysis of it. We will work together to: develop a critical vocabulary for discussing these books; explore what it means to read or re-read these books as adults; consider what these books tell us about the history of childhood and the histories of books and reading; track the movement of children’s literature into new media; attend to continuity and change across our period of study; and think critically about the formation of a canon of “children’s” literature. Above all, this is a class about the pleasures of reading and imagining.
Students should be advised that this is a very large lecture class.

Grading

Grade: short assignments (30%); paper (25%): midterm (25%) and final (25%).

Texts

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Treasure Island, R.L. Stevenson
Mary Poppins, P.L.Travers
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K.Rowling
Concise edition:Folk & Fairy Tales
Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
Peter Pan, J.M.Barrie
Anne of Green Gables, L.M.Montgomery
Secret Garden, Frances H. Burnett
Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Absolutely True Diary, Sherman Alexie