Department of English

This is not your great-great-gran’s Bildungsroman. There will be no orphans
here. No. Wait. There will absolutely be orphans here, including one from
Kansas who bests a wizard, and another from a cupboard under the stairs who
is a wizard. In this course, we will study the evolution and convolution of
Children's Literature from the 19th to 21st centuries. We will read,
analyze, even psychoanalyze the beloved, the famous, and the just plain
odd, in order to best understand why these books are not just developmental
fabric of our youth, but of critical cultural, literary, and scholarly
importance. We will read across decades and genres, from picture books to
YA and graphic novels, to essays on polemic and passions and the uncanny,
including such voices as Lewis Carroll, Margaret Wise Brown, Jason
Reynolds, E.B. White, and Neil Gaiman. Assignments include one short essay,
weekly quick responses, a presentation on your literary passion, and a
final project of either critical analysis of your course study or a
creative representation of where that study has taken you. Regular
participation in class discussions is crucial. If all good little scholars
are eager and industrious, there will be literary cookies. If not, there
might be wolves…