English 526: Romantic and Victorian Children's Literature

Spring 2010
7:20 pm - 10:00 pm R
Thompson Hall 107

Email: tmichals@gmu.edu
Home page: mason.gmu.edu/~tmichals

Dr. Michals
Robinson B, 993-1193
Office Hours: T 2:00-3:00; R 5:00-6:00, and by appointment

“Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up / Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.”

Some historians argue that children as we know them did not exist before the eighteenth century. Whether or not that is true, children’s books are certainly an eighteenth- century invention, a profitable, surprising, and influential one: when John Newbery (the namesake of our own Newbery Award) published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in 1744 for a new audience of middle-class families, he unleashed a force with which we are still reckoning. In this class we will read early children’s literature in its historical contexts, from its eighteenth-century invention to what is sometimes called its "Golden Age" in the Victorian period. Our central focus will be the changing definition of the child and of children as a reading audience during the Romantic and Victorian periods of British literary history. William Wordsworth’s sense of his childish soul’s "fair seedtime" was part of a larger cultural shift in the meaning of childhood, one that continues to fascinate us with its combined emphases on the beauty of children and on our fears about them. We will focus on religious, rational, and Romantic ideas of childhood, considering as well a wide range of related topics: among them womanhood, masculinity, empire, science, work, nature, fairy tales, nationalism, and the uses of childhood as a metaphor. Texts will include John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann and Jane Taylor, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Edward Lear, Thomas Hughes, James Barrie, E. Nesbit, Frances Hodgeson Burnett, and Oscar Wilde. We will analyze these readings together with critical and historical discussions that are shaping children’s literature as an academic field of inquiry. Students will write weekly reading responses, a short paper, an annotated bibliography, and a longer term paper.

Required Texts:

Hard-Copy:
Maria Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales (1999)
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857)
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871)
Robert Lewis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1881)
Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books (1893, 1895)
E. Nesbit, The Treasure-Seekers (1899)
Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885), The Secret Garden (1910)
J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan (1902-1911)
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (2008)

Clickable URLS in syllabus. If a link does not work, then find the reading in GMU library electronic databases.

On Electronic Reserve:
Password:

Course Requirements:
Class participation, weekly reading responses (on Blackboard), a short paper (5 pages), an annotated bibliography, a prospectus (2 pages; two versions), and a final paper (15 pages).

Course Policies:
Blackboard Postings: Because we meet only once a week, discusion outside of classtime is especially valuable.

Threads: You are each responsible for four 250-300 word postings that set out an arguement about some specific moment in or some specific aspect of the text in order to initiate discussion, both on-line and in-class. Initiate two threads before Spring Break and two after break. Write about something you would actually like to talk about. What strikes you as most interesting, most valuable, most confusing, or most wrong-headed about the text or criticism? This reading response does not need to be organized as a formal essay, although you should give it a title that suggests its main idea (for example, "Wordsworth's Bizarre Boy" rather than Thread #1). I encourage you to use these postings as a starting point for your two formal papers. Please post these four on Blackboard by 10:00 am the day before the designated class -- please give people time to respond to you! Earlier is even better.

Responses: Each student is responsible for six responses to the above. Write three before Spring Break and three after break. You may respond to the original posting or to other responses about it. Postings should be around 50 words: you don't need to make an extended argument, but "No, I don't agree" or "Wonderful point" will not qualify. Please treat fellow posters with the same respect and seriousness on-line as you would in class. Please post these six by 10:00 pm the day before the designated class (although earlier is, of course, even better).

Postings: Evaluation: I will evaluate postings--both originating threads and responses--based on your consistent and rich participation in the online dialogue. I will not grade individual postings, however. Here is the scale I will use, based on 100 points total.

For each of 4 originating threads missed: -15 points
For each of 6 responses missed: - 7

I also reserve the right to adjust grades up or down based on the quality of what's posted.

Annotated Bibliography:
The annotated bibliography will get you started on thinking through critical issues for your final paper. You may write about an 18th or 19th-century text that's on the syllabus or (after talking with me) one that is not I encouage you to explore authors or elements, such as illustration, that we could not do justice to in class. Briefly summarize the relevant key points of 14 critical, historical, or theoretical sources and explain what is important to your final paper about each one. These sources will not be equally important to your project -- explain why each one is more or less so. Describe any patterns of thought that you see in them (for example, several of them respond in different ways to one very influential article, or several of them discuss the same critical crux in your text). Each critical summary should be half a page to a page long. Preface each one with a bibliographical citation in MLA format. Also include a separate one-page update on your prospectus: how has your project changed as you have done further research? Have you arrived at something like a thesis yet?

Final Paper:
A typed 10-page draft of your final paper is due on ; half of that class will be devoted to a paper workshop. Use MLA format for parenthetical citations and list of works cited.

Grades:
Blackboard Discussion: 15%
Short Paper: 10%
Annotated Bibliography: 10%
Prospectus: 15 %
Final Paper: 50 %

Schedule of assignments:

Date	Readings	Writing Deadlines
January 21:	The History of Children’s Literature: From Instruction to Delight?
January 28:	* February 2 is the last day to drop classes with no tuition penalty * "Little, or Almost Insensible Impressions": Protestants, Philosophers, and Shopkeepers Felicity A. Hughes, "Children's Literature: Theory and Practice," ELH, 45, No. 3 (1978): 542-561 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872651 John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Dedication, Parts I, II, III, IV, IX starting at section 147 (on learning) through X 161 (especially A Sound Mind, Health, Warmth, Feet, Air, Clothes, Sleep, Mind, Spoiling, Early Punishments, Beating, Reputation, Reasoning, Crying, Learning, Reading, Reading Cont’d, Conclusion) http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1692locke-education.html BREAK Find in GMU library's electronic database, Eighteenth-Century Collections On-line (ECCO): Isaac Watts, Divine Songs and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children ([1750]) John Newbery, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744); The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765) Recommended: Andrew O'Malley, “The Coach and Six”: Chapbook Residue in Late Eighteenth-Century Children’s Literature,” The Lion and the Unicorn, 24 (2000) 18-44 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v024/24.1omalley.html Gillian Brown, "The Metamorphic Book: Children's Print Culture in the Eighteenth Century," Eighteenth-Century Studies, 39 (2006) 351-362 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/eighteenth-century_studies/v039/39.3brown.html
February 4:	"The Damned Barbauld Crew": Rational Women Find in GMU library's electronic database, Eighteenth-Century Collections On-line (ECCO): Anna Letitia Barbauld, Lessons for Children from Two to Three Years Old (1787) and Hymns in Prose for Children (1781) Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories (1791); note engravings by William Blake and catalogue at the back Maria Edgeworth, Rosamond Stories: “The Purple Jar” "The Wager," "The Birthday" "Wonders" Mitzi Myers, "Impeccable Governesses, Rational Dames, and Moral Mothers: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Female Tradition in Georgian Children's Books," Children's Literature, 14 (1986) 31-59 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/childrens_literature/v014/14.myers.html BREAK “Behold the Child”: Romantic Childhood “Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” “We Are Seven” “The Boy of Winander”http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww144.html “She dwelt among the untrodden ways” Three years she grew in sun and shower” “Lucy Gray” Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile (selections 1762) Recommended: Megan A. Norcia, "Puzzling Empire: Early Puzzles and Dissected Maps as Imperial Heuristics,"Children's Literature, 37 (2009) 1-32 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/childrens_literature/toc/chl.37.html E-Reserve: Alan Richardson, “Children’s Literature and the Work of Culture”
February 11:	“My mother, she slew me / My father, he ate me”: The Grimms and Perrault Maria Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales: "Little Red Riding Hood" 11, "Little Red Cap" 13; Straparola, "The Pig King" 42; "The Frog King" 47; "Snow White" 83; "Donkeyskin" 109; "Cinderella" 117; "Bluebeard" 144; "Fitcher's Bird" and "The Robber Bridegroom" 151; "Hansel and Gretel" 184 and "The Juniper Tree" 190; "Little Thumbling" 199 Maria Tatar, “Sex and Violence: The Hard Core of Fairy Tales” (in Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales 364) BREAK E-Reserve: from Perry Nodleman, "The Hidden Adult" Recommended: Jack Zipes, "Breaking the Disney Spell" (in Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales 332) Grenby, M. O., "Tame Fairies Make Good Teachers: The Popularity of Early British Fairy Tales" The Lion and the Unicorn, 30 (2006) 1-24. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v030/30.1grenby.html Ruth Bottinghiemer, Fairy Tales J.R.R. Tolkien, “Children and Fairy Stories”
February 18:	More Fairy Tales: Oscar Wilde, "The Happy Prince," "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant" Hans Christian Andersen, "The Red Shoes," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid" Robert Southey, "The Three Bears" E-Reserve: Neil Gaiman, "Locks" BREAK Evangelicals and India: Mary Martha Sherwood, The History of the Fairchild Family (1818-1847); The Hisory of Little Henry and His Bearer (1814) Dara Rossman Regaignon, "Intimacy's Empire: Children, Servants, and Missionaries in Mary Martha Sherwood's Little Henry and his Bearer" http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/chq/v026/26.2.regaignon.html	Discuss prospectus
February 25:	The School Story: Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays (start paying attention when Tom goes to Rugby) E- Reserve: Claudia Nelson, Boys Will Be Girls BREAK Workshop on Prospectus Recommended: William Weaver, "A School-Boy's Story": Writing the Victorian Public Schoolboy Subject," Victorian Studies, 46, (2004): 455-487 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3829669 Ellen Bayuk Rosenman, “Body Doubles: The Spermatorrhea Panic” Journal of the History of Sexuality,12, (2003), 365-399 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3704893	Draft of Prospectus Due
March 4:	"All on a Summer's Afternoon": The Golden Age of Children's Literature? Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) Robert Hemmings "A Taste of Nostalgia: Children's Books from the Golden Age," Children's Literature, 35 (2007) 54-79 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/childrens_literature/v035/35.1hemmings.html BREAK Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871) Recommended: Rose Lovell-Smith. "The Animals of Wonderland: Tenniel as Carroll's Reader" Criticism, 45, (2003) 383-415 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/criticism/v045/45.4lovell_smith.html	Prospectus due
March 11:	SPRING BREAK: Finish the bulk of your research for your final project!
March 18:	Class cancelled to hold individual paper conferences.	Bring a typed draft of your annotated bibliography to your conference.
March 25:	“Yo-Ho-Ho, and a Bottle of Rum!”: The Boy’s Adventure Story Robert Lewis Stevenson, Treasure Island, “My First Book” Lisa Honaker, “’One Man to Rely On’: Long John Silver and the Shifting Character of Victorian Boys’ Fiction” Journal of Narrative Theory 34 (2004) 27-53 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/journal_of_narrative_theory/v034/34.1honaker.html Recommended: Anne H. Lundin, "The Reception of Children's Books in England and America, 1880-1900" The Library Quarterly 64: (1994), 30-59 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/4308896	Annotated bibliography due
April 1:	Imperial Fictions: Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book Richard Flynn, "Kipling and Scouting, or 'Akela, We'll Do Our Best,'"Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 16, (1991) 55-58 http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/childrens_literature_association_quarterly/v016/16.2.flynn.html Mohanty, S.P. "Kipling's Children and the Colour Line." Race and Class 31 (1989): 21-39. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=http://rac.sagepub.com.mutex.gmu.edu/content/vol31/issue1/ BREAK Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book
April 8:	Words and Pictures: Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book Re-Read Felicity Hughes on the relationship of contemporary fantasy and children's literature. She wrote in 1978, Gaiman in 2008: what, if anything, has changed? http://www.illuminated-books.com/index.html BREAK Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Little Lord Fauntleroy
April 15:	“Those Beastly Fallen Fortunes”: Domestic Stories E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers Maria Nikolajeva, “A Dream of Complete Idleness: Depiction of Labor in Children’s Fiction” The Lion and the Unicorn, 26 (2002) 305-321 tp://muse.jhu.edu.mutex.gmu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v026/26.3nikolajeva.html BREAK Workshop on Final Paper	Draft of final paper due.
April 22:	Class cancelled to hold individual paper conferences.	Revised draft of your final paper due at your conference.
April 29:	“Wonderful Boy?”: Romantic Childhood Revisited J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan E-Reserve: Jaqueline Rose, “Introduction” from The Case of Peter Pan, or, The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction
Monday, May 3:		Final paper due in Robinson A 428 by 4:00 pm