Courses

ENG 510: Creative Writing Seminar: Children’s Literature (4) Staff
A workshop course in the writing of imaginative literature for children — picture books, poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction — with some study of published works in the appropriate genre. May be taken for more than one year for credit. Offered every year.

ENG 528: Children’s Book Artists (4)
The role of art in children’s literature; a survey of traditional and contemporary works emphasizing but not limited to the European and American tradition; an examination of how artists interpret and reinterpret the text.

ENG 529: Children and Poetry (4) Styles and Hanlon
Historical and critical approaches to British and American poetry for children, including religious and didactic verse; women poets “lost from the nursery” in the 19th century; the influence of black poetry (including performance poetry) on writing for children; nonsense; nursery rhymes and the oral tradition; and contemporary trends in children’s poetry in Britain and America, including “urchin verse.” Offered in 2007.

ENG 535: Traditions and Adaptations in Literature for Young Children (4)
Modern literature for young children as it re-creates and adapts a variety of literary traditions originating in older oral and written sources. Alphabet books, nursery rhymes, folktales, ballads and legends, historical picture books, animal tales and other forms of fantasy, with some consideration of dramatic and film adaptations of traditional stories. In 2005 the course will focus on folklore and children’s books of southern Appalachia, comparing regional tales and books with parallel stories in other traditions.

ENG 536: The Fantastic in Children’s Literature (4)
The nature of the fantastic in children’s literature, from 19th-century classics through Pooh and Oz to works by Sendak, Cameron, L’Engle, Le Guin, and the young adult science fiction and fantasy of Heinlein and Garner.

ENG 538: Minority Images in Children’s Literature (4)
The imaging of American minority groups in picture books and novels for children and young adults.

ENG 539: Children’s Literature and Critical Theory (4)
An introduction to literary theory; an examination of major 20th-century critical and theoretical trends and how they have affected and continue to affect children’s literature.

ENG 541: Exploring The Boundaries: Books For And About Boys (4)
Writing concerned primarily with the maturation of boys and designed explicitly or implicitly for a reading audience of boys, from the beginnings of children’s literature to the present. An examination of the ideas about gender, reading and writing that led to a genre called the “boys’ book,” the issues of masculinity, sexuality, and socialization that permeate the “boys’ book,” and the developments that have tended to de-emphasize gender-specific reading audiences in the 20th century.

ENG 542: History and Criticism of Children’s Literature (4) Brock-Servais
An introduction to British and American literature for children, from its roots in the oral tradition and medieval literature through 20th-century works. Required for all students. Offered every year.

ENG 544: Children’s Film (4)
An exploration of films produced primarily for juvenile audiences, with particular attention to the films’ entertainment and didactic value, the treatment of controversial themes, and the depiction of children.

ENG 545: Children’s Literature in Translation (4)
Is translated children’s literature a means of bridging cultural differences or of obscuring them? What survives in the process of translation, and what is the spectrum of choices along which translators of children’s literature must decide to place themselves? Knowledge of one or more languages besides English is desirable, but not necessary.

ENG 546: The Modern Young Adult Novel (4)
A chronological survey of novels published for and about teenagers since The Catcher in the Rye, from modern classics to current attention getters. Is there really such a thing as “young adult” literature? How might we read it as scholars, critics, and writers? How does it shape perceptions of gender, race, and class?

ENG 550: Special Topic: Children's Mystery Novels (4) Stahl
This course examines the history, variety, and techniques of the children's mystery novel. Beginning with popular detective series, the course includes consideration of influential early children's mysteries, mysteries with literary ambitions, and famous "cross-over" detectives. The purpose of the course is to explore the genre of the mystery novel for children, its development and particular features, and its relation to children's literature in general. Offered in 2007.

ENG 550: Special Topic: Forms Analysis of Writing for Children (4) LaFaye
Creative writing of any kind is a bit like a magic trick. The writer is attempting to trick the reader into thinking the text is portraying a full dimensional physical world with tiny little things called words. This class is intended to help both writers and readers discover how published authors pull off this grand illusion. We’ll be examining the forms of several genres of writing for children to uncover exactly how each writer pulls off the trick of representing the “real world” in creative writing. This process gives writers a “behind the scenes look” at the “tricks of the trade” giving them insight into how to apply the same approaches in their own writing.  For readers, this process teaches close reading and in this particular class, cultural analysis skills. Because this is a cross-listed class, you can take it as a reader or a writer. Offered in 2007.

ENG 558: Myth and Folktale: Children’s Literature (4)
An examination of myths and folktales from diverse cultures and the ways in which they express and shape collective values, from the Grimm Brothers to African-American and Caribbean folktales.

ENG 559: When Childhood Goes to Hollywood (4) Abate
Nearly as long as there have been popular books for children in England and the United States, there have been dramatic adaptations of them. During the nineteenth century, these adaptations took the form of theatrical productions for the stage. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, cinematic versions become popular. This course will explore what happens when “childhood goes to Hollywood.”  What is gained, and lost, when children’s books are adapted for the big screen?  In what ways do these cinematic adaptations accurately address the themes, characters and plot of the original print narrative, and in what ways do they redress them?  Have filmic strategies for presenting books for boys and girls changed over time?  Are these adaptations designed to replace or supplement the printed text?  What does the recent abundance of film versions of children’s literature — and their widespread success — say about the way in which childhood is conceptualized and commercialized in the United States?  Finally, given that cinematic adaptations of children’s books are not going away any time soon, how ought the field deal with this phenomenon?  In other words, what is the relationship — or what should the connection be — between works of children’s literature and their seemingly inevitable film adaptations? Offered in 2007.

ENG 563: Gender and Identity in Science Fiction and Fantasy (4)
Fantasy literature has always been a powerful tool for examining how we acquire identities. Science fiction writers have, in the last decades, begun to explore implications of and alternatives to our culture’s gender divisions. In this course we will survey the way children’s fantasy and science fiction.

ENG 571: Young Adult Science Fiction: Where the Boys -- and Girls -- Are (4) Sullivan
An examination of the history and development of technological literature (1910-1947) and science fiction (1947-present) written and marketed expressly for the young adult reader. The seminar also addresses a variety of relevant topics: science fiction and literary theory, series books for young readers, science fiction and technology, gender in/and science fiction, science fiction and American cultural history and development. Offered in 2007.

ENG 572: Storytelling (4)
This class will provide a brief history of storytelling as it has developed in the United States, focusing particularly on storytellers who came out of the public library traditions, but also discussing traditional storytellers and storytellers with theatrical backgrounds. Students will be introduced to techniques for selecting and learning stories. Performance techniques will be demonstrated by the instructor. Some time will be devoted to using props such as puppets, felt boards, and various objects as a way to enrich the story experience for very young children or the disabled. Students will be expected to read certain texts on the art of storytelling, to familiarize themsleves with traditional folktales, to select appropriate stories for telling, and to learn and perform as least three stories for the class.

ENG 573: Gender and Girls' Fiction (4)
This course uses contemporary theories about gender as a framework for readings of classic texts for girls. Gender theory leads us to new perspectives on both girls' fiction itself and scholarly criticism of that fiction.

ENG 583: Advanced Writing Tutorial (4) Staff
Graduate tutorial seminar in the generation, examination, and interpretation of texts in children's literature in the light of literary history and theory with attention to the writing of the students in the class. The exact contents of any given seminar will be determined by the needs and interests of its members. Offered every year. Limited to students in the M.F.A. program in children's literature.

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