Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Childrens Literature

1
Constructing Childhood A Brief History of
Childrens Literature

• English 305
• Dr. Roggenkamp

2
What is childrens literature? What is
childhood?

• Meaning of childhood is socially constructed,
  constantly evolving
• Books for children reflect dominant cultural
  ideals
• Reinforce ideas about behavior, morality, gender
  roles, class structure, etc.shape reader
• Reflect ideological lens of writer, culturenot
  created in vacuum
• Image Rosemary Adcock, Orphan Series

3
Analyze childrens literature in order to . . .

• Uncover cultures views of childhoodor ideal
  view
• Examine societys concept of self
• Interrogate individual authors relationship to
  broader cultural context
• Viewed across time, provides insight into our own
  concepts of childhood and normalcy
• Image Arthur B. Houghton, Mother and
  Children Reading, 1860

4
What did childhood mean Historical Highlights
of Western Civilizations

• 400 years ago children born in state of sin
  childhood reading about religious guidance,
  indoctrination
• 250-300 years ago invention of childhood as
  modern concept childrens minds a blank
  slatefill with proper information
• 200 years ago children naturally innocent moral
  compass to society
• 40 years ago children need to read about harsh
  realities of life

5
Middle Ages / Medieval Era(500 1500)

• Low literacyclass-based
• Childhood generally ignoredshort and not so
  sweet
• Medieval epics, romances, histories for adults
  also held childrens interest (e.g. Beowulf, King
  Arthur, Robin Hood, lives of saints, historical
  legends, etc.)
• Mingle reality with magic, fantasy,
  enchantment animal characters

6
European Renaissance, Religious Reformation (1500
1650)

• Printing Press (mid 15th century)
• Most important technical innovation since wheel
• Print books in quantityreduce time, labor, cost
• Increased literacy, promoted education,
  disseminated knowledge and practice of reading
• New merchant middle classvalue education,
  literacy
• Protestantism
• Image Replica of early Gutenberg press

7
Protestantism Roots of Modern Childhood
(English American colonial Puritans 17th
early 18th centuries)

• Ideal of universal literacy
• Children products of original sin a time to
  prepare for adult religious experience
• Instructional books, conduct books
• Primers teach reading, but also turn innately
  sinful children into spiritual beings
• Themes of death, damnation, conversion
• Image From New England Primer, circa 1690

8
A little light bedtime reading . . .

• Popular reading for Protestant children Book of
  Martyrs (1563) The Day of Doom (1662)
• Anti-Catholic account of Bloody Mary reign
• Poem of damnation of world
• Horrific scenes of violence, mutilation, murder
• Images Thomas Foxe, Book of Martyrs,
  1563 Michael WIgglesworth, The Day of Doom, 1662

9
Enter Modern Childhood The Enlightenment
(17th 18th centuries)

• John Locke (1632-1704), Some Thoughts Concerning
  Education (1693)
• Young mind as tabula rasa (blank slate)
• Children not burdened by original sin
• Logical beings awaiting proper education
• Whole new construction of childhooddistinct and
  special phase of life
• Image John Locke

10
Enter Modern Childhood Romanticism (late
18th/early 19th centuries)

• Children naturally innocent, moral The child
  is the father of the man (William Wordsworth)
• Books should free childrens imaginationsnot be
  based in idea of natural sinfulness NOR based in
  logic
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile (1755)Children
  should be raised in natural settings, free to
  imagine
• Image Jean-Jacques Rousseau

11
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries Folktales, Fairy
Tales, and the New Child

• Complicated role of fairy tales
• Enlightenment culture disapproves of folktales
  for childrentoo childlike, not LOGICAL
• But Romantic poets/philosophers (Wordsworth,
  Coleridge, et al.) argue we can learn from
  childrens imaginations and from primitive
  stories
• Fairy tales deemed appropriate only for
  children
• Image Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Child With an
  Apple, late 18th century

12
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries Folktales, Fairy
Tales, and the New Child

• Charles Perrault (1628-1703)
• Tales from Times Past or, Tales of Mother Goose
  (1697)
• Retellings literary renderings of Cinderella,
  Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
• Some explicitly directed toward children
• Image Histoires ou Contes du temps passé
  avec des moralitez, 1697

13
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries Folktales, Fairy
Tales, and the New Child

• Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• Nursery and Household Tales (1812-1815) directed
  explicitly toward children
• Clean up folktales develop Perraults
  literary fairy tales
• Rewrite to fit Victorian sensibilities, 19th
  century ideas about morality, politics, social
  class, etc.
• Image Little Brother Little Sister and
  Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, illus. Arthur
  Rackham, 1917