Transcript
HISTORY OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
GREEK AND ROMAN ERA50 B.C. – A.D. 500
• The ancient art of STORYTELLING
• Entertainment, comfort, to instruct, to pass religious &
cultural heritage
• Didn’t distinguish between adult and children’s
literature
• Children were not seen as a recognized audience
GREECE
- birthplace of western culture
- promoted democracy and
individualism
- children grew up with stories of the
Trojan War (Homer’s Iliad) and the
travels of Odysseus (Homer’s Odyssey)
ROME/ ROMAN EMPIRE
- admired the greeks
- knew Virgil’s Aeneid/ Aeneos, the
TROJAN HERO who was credited in
founding the Roman race
-power of ancient stories/myths for
inspiration & retelling
• Roman catholic church dominated the social &
political scene
• Education was a luxury, few people could read or write
• Books were extremely rare & expensive
• Oral tradition was the principal entertainment
• Recited: 1)Biblical stories (Old & New Testament) and
lives of Saints
2) Non Religious secular stories
MIDDLE AGES:500-1500PERIOD BETWEEN THE FALL OF ROME AND
THE RISE OF THE RENAISSANCE
BIBLICAL
• Stories of Saints
• Adam & Eve
• Cain & Abel
• Noah and the Great
Flood
• Jonah & the Whale
• Tower of Babel
MIDDLE AGES :500 -1500P E R I O D B E T W E E N T H E F A L L O F R O M E A N D T H E R I S E
O F T H E R E N A I S S A N C E
Non-Religious Secular
Stories
• King Arthur & The
Knights of the Round
Table
• Roland (France)
• El Cid (Spain)
• Beowulf (Norse)
MIDDLE AGES :500 -1500P E R I O D B E T W E E N T H E F A L L O F R O M E A N D T H E R I S E
O F T H E R E N A I S S A N C E
St. Anselm-1033-1109
•This Archbishop of Canterbury wrote instructions
about how children should behave, along with
concepts about natural science and religion.
•In print, he was a first to feel children needed
spiritual guidance.
•Manuscript Book production means a book was
created entirely by hand, usually as an example of
the writer’s religious worship
•The Book of Kellsis a copy of the four Gospels
along with illuminated image
MIDDLE AGES :500 -1500P E R I O D B E T W E E N T H E F A L L O F R O M E A N D T H E R I S E
O F T H E R E N A I S S A N C E
Secular Book Production by Manuscript (1300- 1400’s)
• The Canterbury Tales
- written by Geoffrey Chaucer
- not a children’s story
- adventure stories - ROBIN HOOD
MIDDLE AGES :500 -1500P E R I O D B E T W E E N T H E F A L L O F R O M E A N D T H E R I S E
O F T H E R E N A I S S A N C E
• Paved way for genuine literature
• Crusades of the 11th & 12th centuries opened trade
routes & introduced new text to Europe
• Development of the “New World”
• Children became more literate
• Books or moral manners : Book of Martyrs (anti-
catholic work with bloody scenes of violent death)
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
Book of Martyrs:
(anti-catholic work with bloody scenes of violent death)
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
• First children’s picture book• Intended as textbook for the teachings of Latin through
pictures
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
PURITANS
- very strict religious sect
-placed a high value in reading
- credited with encouraging literacy among
the middle classes
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
PURITANISM
- emphasized individual’s own
salvation
- children were seen as young
souls to be saved
-literature were directed to
save children from
death and hell
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
THE HORNBOOKS
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
BATTELDORES- Cheap books made of folded cardboard- Contains educational material
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
RENAISSANCE: 1500 - 1650R E B I R T H O F T H E I D E A L S O F A N C I E N T R O M E A N D
G R E E C E
Beginning of Children’s Literature
• 1740’s regarded as the decade when English novels & children’s book
were born
• Novels began to replace “unsophisticated” fantastic tales
LATE 1700’S
LATE 1700’S
LATE 1700’S
LATE 1800’S THE VICTORIAN ERATHE GOLDEN AGE OF
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
• Children’s books became more respectful
towards the child & imagination & less
directly didactic
• Writing for children was emphatic rather
than directive
L AT E 1 8 0 0 ’ S T H E V I C T O R I A N E RA
T H E G O L D E N A G E O F C H I L D R E N ’ S L I T E RAT U R E
L AT E 1 8 0 0 ’ S T H E V I C T O R I A N E RA
T H E G O L D E N A G E O F C H I L D R E N ’ S L I T E RAT U R E
Attributes to several developments:
• Strengthening of the family unit
• Rapid development of technology
• Rise of the status of women
• Widespread educational opportunity
• Growth of the middle class
The Birth of the Classics
The Birth of the Classics
The Fantastics
•Charles Kingsley –The Water-Babies-1863•Charles Dickens –The Magic Fishboneand A Christmas Carol1843•Charles Dodgson –Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland& Through the Looking Glass1965•Jules Verne -Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea1869•George McDonald –The Light Princess1867 At the Back of the North Wind1871•Joel Chandler Harris –Nights with Uncle Remus1883•Rudyard Kipling –The Jungle Books1894 –Just So Stories1902•C. Collodi–Pinocchio1892•Edith Nesbit –The Story of the Treasure Seekers1899•L. Frank Baum –The Wizard of OZ-1900•Kenneth Graham –The Wind in the Willows1902•James Barrie –Peter Pan 1904 -At first a play and 1912 a book called Peter and Wendy
The Birth of the Classics
The Early Illustrators
1 9 0 0 ’ S T O T O D AYE X P L O S I O N O F M U L T I M E D I A & I N T E R T E X T U A L I T Y
Diversity in children’s books, picture books – to flap books to
online multimedia text
Fear was transposed to fantasy
1 9 0 0 ’ S T O T O D AYE X P L O S I O N O F M U L T I M E D I A & I N T E R T E X T U A L I T Y
From World War to Present: Youth Culture
- empowerment of children in the classroom
- advocacy of children’s rights in the legal system
• C. S. Lewis: Narnia Chronicles (1950)
• E. B. White: Charlotte’s Web
1900 ’S TO TODAYEXPLOSION OF MULTIMEDIA &
INTERTEXTUALITY
1900 ’S TO TODAYEXPLOSION OF MULTIMEDIA &
INTERTEXTUALITY
SYNTHESIS
• Children’s literature refers mainly to stories,
poetry, rhymes, folk tales, drama, exclusively
created for children
• Simplicity of theme is the over-riding
criterion that determines and defines
literature as Children’s literature
• Literature could mean a subject of study, a
form of work or training. The raw material of
literature is language hence literature is
language.
REFERENCES
www.questia.com
www.history.com
www. angelfire.com
www.ericdigests.com
www.readwritethink.org
Understanding Children’s Literature(1999).
New York, Routledge
An introduction to Children’s Literature, Peter
(1994)
GROUP 3 Children’s Lit Engl 19 10:30-
12:00
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