ENGL 52.17 Victorian Children's Literature: Fairytale and Fantasy

It is said that the Victorians “invented” childhood: a state of freedom, play, creativity, and innocence. The orphans, adventurers, tricksters, and runaways in Victorian children’s books make friends with pirates, talk to animals, fly through the sky, and fall down rabbit holes. What made these stories so popular in the nineteenth century, and why do they continue to enchant readers? This course explores the genre of Victorian children’s literature in relation to such themes as Romantic innocence, nature and animal studies, climate change, sexuality and queerness, evolution, colonialism and race, disability studies, global economics, and play. Throughout the course, we’ll think about how stories for children are constructed and how writers and artists have adapted these Victorian texts for later audiences (e.g. through film, graphic novels, and fan fiction). The course will include both critical and creative assignments. Texts may include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll), Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson), The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling), Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie), The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett), and fairytales by Oscar Wilde.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Course Group II