This course is an introduction to British literature for children and historical attitudes towards childhood, play, and education, from the eighteenth century to the present day, and covering classic and contemporary texts from different genres. These may include nursery rhymes and nonsense, fairy tales and fantasy, picture books and comics, animals and anthropomorphization, school stories, and morality and didacticism. The course will typically include an examination of the idea of childhood and the origins of children’s writing, as well as how children are taught to read.
