06386 - Children's Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows the cultural context in which children's literature has historycally found itself; knows how to analyse children's books, distinguishing between commercial, strictly educational, and literary products; knows how to make connections between a literary, a filmic, a visual text directed to children or having children as their focus; knows the main theories concerning the study of children's literature; knows how to conceive educational and didactic project to promote the pleasure of reading.

Course contents

The course teaches what children's books - and especially children's 'classics' and/or the best contemporary literary products - are actually about. It stimulates to read deeper and in between the lines in order to discover and decipher the metaphores, the topoi, the archetypes, the symbols implicit in all literature and in particular in children's literature. It shows how many important, philosophical and anthropological themes are to be found in children's books. It reveals how children's books are, at their best, always a subversive literature, deeply critical of the grown-ups world, usually characterized by too rigid or too limited schemes, behaviours and perspectives. The course uses childrens' literature to help future teachers to discover the inner, and often otherwise unexpressed, world of childhood, with its peculiar visions, desires, dreams, needs and ways to be in the world.

The course is divided in two sections:

Modulo 1 (frontal lectures, given by Giorgia Grilli)

Modulo 2 (workshop, leaded by William Grandi)

Contents of Modulo 2:

Purpose of the workshop (16 h) is to provide students with an opportunity to explore the world of fairy-tales, books, illustrated books, and narratives for young children by means of practical and group activities. Knowledge of the most important and creative narrative and publishing sectors for the 3-10 age range is an important professional asset for educators in infant services and teachers in Primary School: for an educator, familiarity with the illustrated book and oral storytelling sector means mastery of some of the most effective tools in stimulating, enriching, and strengthening the creativity and intelligence of a child. 

The topics of the workshop are "telling and reading fairy tales", "inventing new stories from well-known tales", "picture books for children: typologies, forms and contents".

At the end of each workshop meeting, all small groups show their scripts (e.g. a fairy-tales revisited, an illustrated poster, an analysis of a picture books..) to the large group, in order to share the achieved results and to discuss together on these topics.

Activities in the workshop will be mainly carried out through work in small groups: the student groups will always consist of the same members so as to give continuity to their work and objectivity in the final assesment of the materials developed by each team. During each meeting, small groups of students will develop materials for reflection and a detailed study of the topics presented to them during the workshop. There will be a final evaluation of these materials. It is suggested that students read Gianni Rodari, La Grammatica della Fantasia, Einaudi Editore, Turin.

Before the final exam, students must attend the Children's Literature workshop (except Erasmus students, who DO NOT HAVE TO ATTEND THE WORKSHOP).
The workshop will be under the general supervision of the professor, and will deal with themes (e.g. Fairy Tales, Pictures for Children) linked to the course contents. The workshop will be assesed: rejected (in this case the student must take part to a second workshop) or -1/0/+1 to be added to the score of the final oral exam.

The final score will not be based on /30; it will be a qualification ("workshop passed"/"workshop not passed").

Readings/Bibliography

To pass the exam, all students have to study very carefully the following critical text:

G. Grilli, Libri nella giungla. Orientarsi nell'editoria per ragazzi, Roma, Carocci, 2012

and one more critical text, to be chosen among the following ones:

E. Beseghi, G. Grilli, La letteratura invisibile. Infanzia e libri per bambini, Roma, Carocci, 2011;

M. Bernardi, Letteratura per l'infanzia e alterità, Milano, FrancoAngeli;

G. Grilli, In volo, dietro la porta. Mary Popins e Pamela Lyndon Travers, Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio;

E. Varrà, L'età d'oro. Storie di bambini, metafore d'infanzia, Bologna, Pendragon;

A. Lurie, Non ditelo ai grandi, Milano, Mondadori;

A Lurie, Bambini per sempre, Milano, Mondadori;

J. Griswold, Feeling like a Kid, Baltimore, John Hopkins University.

Students will also have to choose a specific, recurrent, or typical theme of children's literature and read at least 4 novels for children revolving around that theme.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures enriched by the use of projected images taken from the most important illustrated children's books and picturebooks, by the reading aloud of parts of novels, picturebooks and short stories, and by the vision of some movies concerning childhood.

Assessment methods

The exam is an oral exam, and the student will be asked to talk about the most important themes found in the critical books and to create a discourse on a chosen theme for which he/she will have read at least 4 children's novels (classic and/or contemporary ones).

The exam score is in 30ties (minimum score is 18, maximum 30).

If a student doesn't pass the exam, he/she can try it the following session.

To be part of the list of students that in any sessions will be interviewed, students must sign up to the exam through the Almaesami website. 

Office hours

See the website of Giorgia Grilli

See the website of William Grandi