ENGL 3830 Syllabus, Spring 2012

Day / Key Questions / Materials
Tu, Jan 10 /
  • What is the history of the field of children’s literature?
  • What sort of questions do children’s literature scholars pursue?
  • What is didacticism?
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  • Handout: Excerpts from children’s literature.
  • Presentation: Using library resources.

Homework: Read Karen Coats’ “Fish Stories: Teaching Children’s Literature in a Postmodern World.” Pedagogy 1.2 (2001) 405-409. You can access Coats’ article via the Project Muse database. Read the scans of the stories referenced in Coats’ essay.
Th, Jan 12 /
  • What are the components of a scholarly article?
  • Why and how do professors write about experiences in their classrooms?
  • What were Coats’ key findings regarding “teaching children’s literature in a postmodern world?”
  • Oh, and what is postmodernism?
/
  • Coats’ “Fish Stories.”

Homework: Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone;you should be completely finished with the novel by the beginning of class on Tuesday, January 17. Also, please read this scholarly article, available on Project Muse: “Is There a Text in This Advertising Campaign?: Literature, Marketing, and Harry Potter” by Dr. Philip Nel.
Tu, Jan 17 /
  • What are the characteristics of contemporary fantasy?
  • How does the Harry Potter series conform to previous genres such as the school story, the hero tale, and high fantasy?
  • What has been the reception history of the Harry Potter texts?
/
  • JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
  • Nel’s “Is There a Text in This Advertising Campaign?: Literature, Marketing, and Harry Potter”

Homework: Read Elizabeth Rose Gruner’s article, “Teach the Children: Education and Knowledge in Recent Children's Fantasy,” available on Project Muse
Th, Jan 19 /
  • How is maturation treated in the first Harry Potter text? In what ways does Harry learn and grow?
  • How is the concept of childhood innocence treated in the text?
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  • Elizabeth Rose Gruner’s article, “Teach the Children: Education and Knowledge in Recent Children's Fantasy.”

Homework: Read Erskine’sMockingbird
Tu, Jan 24 /
  • How is disability handled in children’s literature?
/
  • Erskine’sMockingbird

Homework: Read Maria Nikolajeva’s “The Identification Fallacy: Perspective and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature.” (Available as a handout)
Th, Jan 26 /
  • What is narrative theory and how can we apply principles of narrative theory, especially point of view and identification, to gain a deeper understanding of children’s literature?
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  • Erskine’sMockingbird
  • Rowlings’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
  • Nikolajeva’s chapter

Homework: / Begin reading Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust – you should have read the entire text by Tuesday, February 7
Tu, Jan 31 /
  • Introduction to children’s poetry
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  • Handouts that I will distribute in class.

Homework: Finish reading Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust. Also read the article “Subcategories Within the Emerging Genre of the Verse Novel” by Vicki Van Sickle, available off of this link:
Th, Feb 2 /
  • What are the characteristics of a children’s verse novel?
  • What are the defining features of historical fiction?
/
  • Hesse’s Out of the Dust
  • Van Sickle’s essay

Homework: Read Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
Tu, Feb 7 /
  • How is Curtis’ novel structured and why might he have made the choices regarding structure?
/
  • Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963
  • View segments of Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls (in class)

Homework: Read Jonda McNair’s essay, “’I May Be Crackin’, But Um Fackin’: Racial Humor in The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963” in Children’s Literature in Education
Th, Feb 9 /
  • In what ways does Curtis’ novel participate in what McNair terms “the black comic tradition”?
/
  • Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963
  • McNair’s “’I May Be Crackin’, But Um Fackin’: Racial Humor in The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963”

Tu, Feb 14 /
  • Review for Exam One
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  • Bring all of your texts to class for the review session.

Homework: Study for the Exam and read L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
Th, Feb 16 / EXAM ONE – IN CLASS THE ENTIRE SESSION.
Homework: Read L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
Tu, Feb 21 /
  • What are the characteristics of children’s film?
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  • Watch the film version of L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time

Homework: Read L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
Th, Feb 23 /
  • What are the characteristics of children’s science fiction?
/
  • L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time

Homework: Read Stead’s When You Reach Me
Tu, Feb 27 /
  • What is intertextuality and how does it work between L’Engle and Stead’s novels?
  • How might Stead’s text reflect contemporary ideas about childhood?
/
  • L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
  • Stead’s When You Reach Me

Homework: Read James Blasingame’s interview with Stead in the Journal of Adolescent Literacy.
Th, Mar 1 /
  • How might Stead’s text reflect contemporary ideas about childhood?
/
  • Stead’s When You Reach Me

SPRING BREAK
Homework: Read the text only versionCoralineKaren Coats’ "Between Horror, Humour, and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic.” (available as a link off of our blog).
Tu, Mar 13 /
  • How does Gaiman’s Coraline reflect the features of gothic fiction?
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  • Gaiman’s Coraline
  • Coats’ "Between Horror, Humour, and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic”

Homework: Gooding’s article "Something Very Old and Very Slow": Coraline, Uncanniness, and Narrative Form”
Th, Mar 15 /
  • How might Coraline be geared towards a double audience?
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  • Gaiman’s Coraline – the text only version
  • Gooding’s article "Something Very Old and Very Slow": Coraline, Uncanniness, and Narrative Form”

Homework: Read Gaiman’s graphic novel version of Coraline and the comics handouts on the blog
Tu, Mar 20 /
  • What are the features of graphic novels?
  • How do the text only and graphic novel variants of Coraline compare?
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  • Gaiman’s Coraline – the text only version and the graphic novel version

Homework: Study for Exam Two
Th, Mar 22 /
  • In what ways does the film version of Coraline depart from the text versions?
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  • View the film version of Coraline in class

Homework: Study for Exam Two
Tu, Mar 27 /
  • Review for Exam 2
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  • Bring all of your books to class from L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time onward

Homework: Study for Exam Two and read Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Th, Mar 29 / EXAM TWO – IN CLASS AND OPEN BOOK
Homework: Read Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Michael Joseph Sommers’ “Are You There, Reader? It’s Me, Margaret: A Reconsideration of Judy Blume’s Prose as Sororal Dialogism” from Project Muse
Tu, Apr 3 /
  • What are the features of the diary format in children’s literature?
  • What is the history of the problem novel in children’s literature?
  • What is sororal dialogism?
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  • Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
  • Sommers’ “Are You There, Reader? It’s Me, Margaret: A Reconsideration of Judy Blume’s Prose as Sororal Dialogism”

Homework: Read Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Vol 1
Th, Apr 5 /
  • How does Kinney meld words and images in his text?
  • How do Blume and Kinney’s versions of sexual maturation differ based upon gender?
/
  • Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Vol 1

Homework: Study for the Final Exam
Tu, Apr 10 /
  • Watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid film

Homework: Study for the Final Exam
Th, Apr 12 /
  • Discuss the similarities and differences between the novel and the film
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  • Kinney’sDiary of a Wimpy Kid

Homework: Study for the Final Exam.
Tu, Apr 17 /
  • Review for the final. Posters Due by 9pm electronically to .
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  • Bring Blume and Kinney’s texts to class.

Homework: Study for the final exam.
Th, Apr 19 /
  • Poster Presentation Day

Weds, Apr 258-10 am / EXAM THREE: Final exam, open book