10292 Introduction to Poetics of Children's Literature

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in Comparative Literature

Prerequisites: none. This course is not recommended as the student’s first course at the Open University.

Author: Zohar Shavit, Basmat Even-Zohar

The course examines several aspects of poetics of children’s literature. It discusses the development of the sociocultural notions of childhood and their connection to the emergence of texts for children and the nature of their development.

Topics: The development of the concepts of “child” and “children” in Western culture; “Little Red Riding Hood” – a case study of the concept of “child”; The self-image of authors of children’s literature and the systemic constraints involved in writing for children; Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World; Ambivalent texts; Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland; Adaptations of The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland for small children; Children and adults in children’s literature; Representation of the world of the child in texts; Yigal Mosinson, the Hasamba series; The status of children’s literature and the character of translated texts; Texts translated from system to system; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.