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Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Early Children

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Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Early Children

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    1. Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of Early Children’s Literature and the Picture Book English 504 Dr. Karen Roggenkamp

    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 contexts 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. “Children’s Lit” in Ancient World (roughly 50 BCE / BC - 500 CE / AD) Oral tales – heard, not read Tales of war, gods, goddesses, history—children & adults alike Aesop’s Fables—animal tales with pointed morals—not just for children Guide/shape citizenry Image: The Fables of Aesop, John Ogilby, 1673-75

    6. Middle Ages (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 Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans), late 13th century: moral tales; animal tales; familiar story plots for centuries to come (Boccaccio, Chaucer, Shakespeare)

    7. European Renaissance; Christian Reformation (1500 – 1650) Printing Press (mid 15th century): Most important technical innovation since wheel Print books in quantity—reduce time, labor, cost New merchant middle classes—value education, literacy European exploration of “New World”—records needed Protestantism Image: Replica of early Gutenberg press

    8. Protestantism & Roots of “Modern Childhood” (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

    9. 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

    10. The Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries): Enter Modern Childhood 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 More nurturing, rational writings Whole new construction of childhood—distinct and special phase of life Image: John Locke

    11. First Picture Book? Orbis Sensalium Pictus (1659) http://education.umn.edu/EdPA/iconics/orbis/orbis.htm

    12. Another “first” John Newbery Bookseller/publisher Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744) — first significant story book specifically for children Songs, poems, moral tales, illustrations Instruct AND entertain Image: John Newbery, Little Pretty Pocket Book, 1744

    13. Shifting ideologies of childhood: from didactic to imaginative Most children’s books of 17th through 19th century extremely DIDACTIC “Why should the mind be filled with fantastic visions, instead of useful knowledge? Why should so much valuable time be lost? Why should we vitiate their taste, and spoil their appetite, by suffering them to feed upon sweetmeats?” --Maria Edgeworth, The Parent’s Assistant (1796)

    14. Romanticism (late 18th/early19th centuries) Children naturally innocent—neither creatures of sin nor cold logic Children naturally innocent, moral – “The child is the father of the man” (William Wordsworth) Books should free children’s imaginations Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile (1755)—Children should be raised in natural settings, free to imagine Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    15. The “Golden Age” of Children’s Literature (mid 19th-early 20th centuries) Ideology of the nuclear family takes shape in early 19th century Home & family as haven in heartless world—source of emotional stability in increasingly materialistic, fractious world Powerful “cult of childhood”—child as icon of “lost” innocence, emblematic of past golden age of humanity Technologies that nurture production of picture book—beyond woodcuts/steel engravings

    16. Nothing Simple About It What is a “picture book?” What’s the point? Why not just tell the story in WORDS? What, in other words, does pictorial narrative do and add to written text? How is an illustration in a picture book a “text” that must be read in conjunction with the written word, a text that in fact CHANGES the written word? Never divorced from ideology: “agendas” of adults in regard to gender, class, race, religion, economics, etc. A kind of textual form unlike any other!

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