CHLit ppt

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