Course Descriptions

Spring 2005

• ENGL 306A: Children's Literature, C. Scott
  This course in Children's Literature for Liberal Studies majors concentrates on a variety of classic and contemporary texts that illustrate a range of types and genres. These have been chosen for their special relevance to prospective teachers in elementary classrooms (as well as others reading to younger children) and include fantasies, fairy tales and picture books as well as realistic books. There will be some old favorites where students' early childhood memories will be stimulated, as well as some new texts. This will give us an opportunity to consider how children's literature speaks to both adults and children. We will engage in a number of different learning strategies such as small and large group discussions and readers' theatre as well as the usual lecture-discussion format. The class will also be asked to attend campus productions in children's theatre. Students will be introduced to a number of ways in which the books can be approached, including psychological perspectives (such as those of Freud, Jung and Piaget), feminist, post-modern and intertextual approaches, graphic-verbal interaction, and reader response.

  Book List
  Charlotte 's Web E.B. White
  Classic Fairy Tales Maria Tatar.
  Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter
  Alice 's Adventures Lewis Carroll
  Child of the Owl Laurence Yep
  Winnie-the-Pooh A.A. Milne
  Hoot Carl Hiaasen
  Princess Smartypants Babette Cole
  Also a brief selection from Pippi Longstocking , and one more picturebook.

  There will be a number of short quizzes, a midterm and an end-of-term test, and a few short papers/reports. This course is taken in conjunction with English 306W where writing about children's literature is the focus.
• ENGL 306A: Children's Literature for Liberal Studies Majors, M. Galbraith
  This course seriously and critically considers the experience of childhood as it has been captured by adult authors in literary fairy tales, picture books, and novels for children. We will be reading one or more books per week, and there will be weekly writing assignments. Required books will include classics such as Anne of Green Gables and The Call of the Wild as well as newer books such as Harriet the Spy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham , 1963. Welcome to this most important discussion!
• ENGL 501: Introduction to Children's Literature, J. Cummins
  In this survey and lecture course, we will explore the history, features, contemporary understandings, and uses of children's literature. Critical analysis will be discussed in class and required in assignments. Emphasis will be on the relationship between children's literature and society.
• ENGL 502: Adolescence in Literature, A. Allison
  English 502 explores prose in which key characters are adolescents, as well as works that have been specifically written for adolescents, primarily the contemporary Young Adult novel. Adolescence is an exciting time during which cognitive functions, argumentative capacity, identity, ego, sexual relationships and love, societal relationships, authority relationships, justice and conscience, bodily image, career, education--and of course much more--are developed, explored, challenged, outgrown. These issues are depicted frequently in first-person narratives that reveal the keen emotions, humor, and observations of teenagers, and sometimes their agonies. Our approach to adolescence will be through cognitive, developmental, and cultural features, our analysis of the literature aesthetic and formal, and our reading diverse, including short stories by Chekov, Joyce, Roth, Oates, Singer, and Boyle. The novels are W.D. Myers' Fallen Angels, Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat, Anchee Min's Red Azalea, Buchi Emecheta's The Slave Girl, Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen, Russell Hoban's The Trokeville Way, and Peter Pohl's Johnny, My Friend (the last two books listed will be available at Cal Copy, along with the course's Reader. The class is recommended for students in general and especially for those interested in secondary school teaching. Requirements are four 2 pp. written assignments, four quizzes, a research paper, and a final. The quality of your writing is a very important determinant of your grade.

Graduate Courses

• ENGL 727: Seminar: A Poetics of Children's Literature, J. Griswold
  Childhood differs from adulthood; if it were otherwise, we would see grown-ups making "camps" under tables, adults moving tiny figurines around on the rug, and seniors playing tag with waves at the seashore. In the same way, children's literature differs from adult fare: how often do we see in Norman Mailer's novels, for example, talking animals, flying characters, and toys that come alive? By singling out pleasures particular to childhood and conspicuous in children's literature, and by examining popular and beloved children's books ( The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Charlotte's Web, Little House on the Prairie, and more), this class means to develop a "poetics" of children's literature-in other words, define the ways literature for the young differs from that for adults. Prospective students are asked to send to Dr. Griswold (at their earliest convenience) a copy of a research paper they did for another class and their email address; in turn, the professor will send them the class reading list and syllabus.

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