Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Children’s Literature

1. Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Children’s Literature English 305 Dr. Roggenkamp

2. What is “children’s literature?” What is “childhood?” • Meaning of “childhood” is socially constructed, constantly evolving • Books “for children” reflect dominant cultural ideals • Reinforce ideas about behavior, morality, gender roles, class structure, etc.—shape reader • Reflect ideological lens of writer, culture—not created in vacuum Image: Rosemary Adcock, “Orphan Series”

3. Analyze children’s literature in order to . . . • Uncover culture’s views of “childhood”—or ideal view • Examine society’s concept of self • Interrogate individual author’s relationship to broader cultural context • Viewed across time, provides insight into our own concepts of childhood and “normalcy” Image: Arthur B. Houghton, Mother and Children Reading, 1860

4. What did “childhood” mean: Historical Highlights of Western Civilizations • 400 years ago: children born in state of sin; childhood reading about religious guidance, indoctrination • 250-300 years ago: “invention of childhood” as modern concept; children’s minds “a blank slate”—fill with proper information • 200 years ago: children naturally innocent; moral compass to society • 40 years ago: children need to read about harsh realities of life

5. Middle Ages / Medieval Era(500 – 1500) • Low literacy—class-based • Childhood generally ignored—short and not so sweet • Medieval epics, romances, histories for adults also held children’s interest (e.g. Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood, lives of saints, historical legends, etc.) • Mingle “reality” with magic, fantasy, enchantment; animal characters

6. European Renaissance, Religious Reformation (1500 – 1650) Printing Press (mid 15th century): • Most important technical innovation since wheel • Print books in quantity—reduce time, labor, cost • Increased literacy, promoted education, disseminated knowledge and practice of reading • New merchant middle class—value education, literacy • Protestantism Image: Replica of early Gutenberg press

7. Protestantism & Roots of “Modern Childhood”(English & American colonial Puritans; 17th & early 18th centuries) • Ideal of universal literacy • Children products of original sin; a time to prepare for adult religious experience • Instructional books, conduct books • Primers: teach reading, but also turn innately sinful children into spiritual beings • Themes of death, damnation, conversion Image: From New England Primer, circa 1690

8. A little light bedtime reading . . . • Popular reading for Protestant children: Book of Martyrs (1563); The Day of Doom (1662) • Anti-Catholic account of “Bloody Mary” reign • Poem of damnation of world • Horrific scenes of violence, mutilation, murder Images: Thomas Foxe, Book of Martyrs, 1563; Michael WIgglesworth, The Day of Doom, 1662

9. Enter “Modern Childhood”: The Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries) • John Locke (1632-1704), Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) • Young mind as tabula rasa (blank slate) • Children not burdened by original sin • Logical beings awaiting proper education • Whole new construction of childhood—distinct and special phase of life Image: John Locke

10. Enter “Modern Childhood”: Romanticism (late 18th/early 19th centuries) • Children naturally innocent, moral – “The child is the father of the man” (William Wordsworth) • Books should free children’s imaginations—not be based in idea of natural sinfulness NOR based in logic • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile (1755)—Children should be raised in natural settings, free to imagine Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

11. Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child • Complicated role of “fairy tales” • Enlightenment culture disapproves of folktales for children—too “childlike,” not LOGICAL • But Romantic poets/philosophers (Wordsworth, Coleridge, et al.) argue we can learn from children’s imaginations and from “primitive” stories • “Fairy tales” deemed appropriate only for children Image: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Child With an Apple, late 18th century

12. Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child • Charles Perrault (1628-1703) • Tales from Times Past; or, Tales of Mother Goose (1697) • Retellings & “literary” renderings of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, etc. • Some explicitly directed toward children Image:Histoires ou Contes du temps passé avec des moralitez, 1697

13. Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child • Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm • Nursery and Household Tales (1812-1815) directed explicitly toward children • “Clean up” folktales; develop Perrault’s “literary” fairy tales • Rewrite to fit Victorian sensibilities, 19th century ideas about morality, politics, social class, etc. Image:Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, illus. Arthur Rackham, 1917