Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Georgetown University/ENGL 2730-05 - Children's Literature (Fall 2023)

This course will examine works written intentionally for a young audience, and we will consider how the texts imagine the child as both subject and reader. We’ll immerse ourselves in a variety of genres -- including board books, picture books, fairytales, poetry, chapter books, and novels -- to think about what’s distinctive about books written specifically for children. We’ll read canonical works as well as lesser known works. Although we will focus mainly on US children’s literature, we will begin by surveying the origins and development of children’s literature. We’ll think about the historic lack of diversity in children’s literature in terms of representation and how that may be changing. Together, we’ll explore the cultural work children’s literature performs, tying our investigation into larger discussions about whose stories get told and why that matters.