English 180 - Fall, 2013

Children's Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Dolan, Frances
CRN: 32477
Time: TR 9:00-10:20
Location: 1227 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 AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN and ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. 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: 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 importance of books and reading in that history; track the movement of children's literature into new media; attend to continuity and change across time; and reflect on what it means to be a child and what we gain and lose in the process of growing up. Above all, this is a class about the pleasures of reading, imagining, and risking.

Grading

Short assignments (25%);
final paper (25%):
quizzes (30%);
final (20%).

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