06386 - Children's Literature

Course contents

The Course intends to analyze the concept of ‘children's literature' and to underline its ambiguities and contradictions (this literature being suspended, as it is, between adults and children, education and adventure, desire to guide and control and need, for the plot to go on, to get out, to get lost, to find oneself alone, to be free, to embrace the unforseen, to look for one's own personal destiny.) Children's literature will be analysed according to its historical evolution, with its changing characteristics. In particular, time will be spent trying to understand which of its characteristics can be considered ‘classic' (or can be found within the books we call ‘the classics') and which of these characteristics are still present in contemporary examples of books for children. During the course, an emphasis will be put on the subversive power of children's literature, on its implicit or explicit critique to what is otherwise or elsewhere seen as the ideal world to which children must adapt, and that is: the adult world.

Readings/Bibliography

All students must carefully study the two following essays:

E. Beseghi, G. Grilli, La letteratura invisibile. Infanzia e libri per bambini, Roma, Carocci, 2011;

G. Grilli, Libri nella giungla. Orientarsi nell'editoria per ragazzi, Roma, Carocci, 2012

And a third essay, chosen among the following ones:

E. Varrà, L'età d'oro. Storie di bambini, metafore d'infanzia, Bologna, Pendragon;

M. Bernardi, Infanzia e metafore letterarie, Bologna, BUP;

G. Grilli, In volo, dietro la porta. Mary Popins e Pamela Lyndon Travers, Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio;

A. Lurie, Non ditelo ai grandi, Milano, Mondadori;

A Lurie, Bambini per sempre, Milano, Mondadori.

It is also required the reading of at least 4 (classic and/or contemporary) novels for children, chosen according to a thematic thread that links them all.

It is suggested that the student studies the critical essays before deciding which 4 novels to choose, as in the critical essays many indications are given on possible themes and on variuous titles of books for children.

Teaching methods

During the course, beside the lectures, many books, or pages of books, will be read, shown, projected onto a screen and analysed together, as well as illustrations and films having children as protagonists, in order to try and grasp (with the help of the best literary and artistic metaphores and images) the inner world of childhood.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral and it will be an interview both on the concepts to be found in the three critical essays and on the 4 novels each student must choose, according to a common theme.

Office hours

See the website of Giorgia Grilli