Fachbereich 7

Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft


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Intersecting Childhood Studies and Children's Literature


DozentIn: Dr. phil. Anja Höing, M.Ed.

Veranstaltungstyp: Seminar

Ort: nicht angegeben

Zeiten: Fr. 10:00 - 12:00 (wöchentlich)

Beschreibung: Although scholars at the turn of the last century somewhat prematurely labelled the twentieth century “the century of the child”, cultural interest in childhood has not abated at all in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Arguably, it has even continued to gather pace, as can for example be seen in the emerging interdisciplinary field of “childhood studies” that continues to gain more and more influence on academia. Not only “real” children and their needs and future prospects are in the focus of attention with regard to the scholarly study of childhood. Especially the most heated debates tend to wage in an altogether different arena: What do we think of when we have in mind “the child” as an abstract idea?
This central question we will also approach in this course. As the very prolific British publishing market for children’s books bears witness to, children’s literature is a very productive source to turn to when researching such abstract concepts of “the child” and the discursive networks surrounding them. What do children’s books associate with “childhood”, “childlikeness” or being “childish”? How do prominent ideological structures of the twenty-first century inform such representations of childhood? And how do children’s books negotiate clashes between conflicting discourses of childhood?

As this course cannot provide a comprehensive overview of twenty-first century British children’s fiction, we will close in on these questions by looking at four examples of British children’s books published during the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

- Terry Pratchett. Nation. 2008.
- Katherine Rundell. The Wolf Wilder. 2015
- Ross Welford. Time Travelling with a Hamster. 2015.
- Jess Butterworth. Where the Wilderness Lives. 2020. (with special thanks to the student who alerted me to the existence of this book!)

Make sure to have purchased and read these books before the term starts. (It doesn’t matter which edition of these texts you buy, as long as your edition can sport proper page numbers for reference.)
Some additional reading will be assigned for certain sessions and will be made available either on Stud.IP or in the university library.

Check Stud-IP on a regular basis to be aware of updates, announcements, and changes.

Students will be required to
- read and discuss a number of children’s books and additional readings
- participate actively and regularly in (online) course activities
- write a 500 to 700 word essay applying one of James and James’s Key Concepts in Childhood Studies to one of the texts [Studiennachweis]
- write a term paper (Details on requirements will be announced in the first session) [Prüfungsleistung]

In this course, term papers will be due on August 31, 2021. In all likelihood, I will not be able to offer deadline extensions.


zur Veranstaltung in Stud.IP