The following
schedule may be slightly modified during the course of the semester, but students
will be notified of any change at least one class day in advance. Detailed descriptions
of the exams, reports and projects will be distributed in class. All
reading assignments must be completed by the first date listed, and texts must
always be brought to class on the day they are to be discussed.
| WEEK | TUESDAY | THURSDAY |
| 1 | 1/19 Introductions, course preview | 1/21 The Victorian Child: Experience William Blake, from Songs of Innocence and Experience; Henry Mayhew, from London Labour and the London Poor (handouts); Zelizer, "From
Useful to Useless: Moral Conflict Over Child Labor" (CC 4). |
| 2 | 1/26 Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) (Prefaces & Chapters 1, 6, 10, 16; The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (pp. 251-69) in Gates, Classic Slave Narratives.
|
1/28 Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (1869) |
| 3 | 2/2 The Victorian Child: Innocence
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) |
2/4 Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, cont. Geer, Jennifer. "'All sorts of pitfalls and surprises': Competing Views of Idealized Girlhood in Lewis Carroll's Alice Books." Children's Literature 31: 1-12 (pdf). |
| 4 | 2/9 Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Little Princess (1904) |
2/11 Burnett, The Little Princess, cont. |
| 5 | 2/16 "I See Dead People": Innocence Lost Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1891) |
2/18 James, The Turn of the Screw, cont. Levander, Caroline. "'Informed Eyes': The 1890s Child Study Movement and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw." Critical Matrix (12:1-2): 8-25 (pdf). |
| 6 |
2/23 The Material Culture of Childhood: "R" Toys Us? Calvert, "Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood"; "The Politics of Dollhood in Nineteenth-Century America" (CC 3, 20)
|
2/25 |
| 7 | 3/2
The 1920s and '30s: Harlem Renaissance and Great Depression Carolyn Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock (1929) |
3/4 Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock, cont. |
| 8 |
3/9 Seiter, Dimples (film, 1936); Daniel Harris, "Cuteness" from Cute, Hungry, Quaint, and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism (pdf) (see The Bad Seed—on reserve) |
3/11 Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, Popo and Fifina (1931) (Introduction and chs. 1-4; pdf); Hughes, "Books and the Negro Child" and "White Shadows in a Black Land" (1932, pdf). Last Day For Required Conference |
| 3/16 Spring Break | 3/18 Spring Break | |
| 9 |
3/23 Bad Seeds: Childhood and the Cold War |
3/25
|
| 10 |
3/30 LeRoy, The Bad Seed (film, 1956) |
4/1 Ray Bradbury, "The Veldt" (1951; pdf); Spigel, "Seducing the Innocent: Childhood and Television in Postwar America" (CC 6) |
| 11 | 4/6 Modern and Postmodern Childhoods: Revisiting the Innocence Question Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970); |
4/8 Morrison, The Bluest Eye, cont. |
| 12 |
4/13 Francisco Jimenez, The Circuit (1997) |
4/15 Jimenez, The Circuit, cont. |
| 13 |
4/20 Cookson, Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen (2001, documentary; in class); Giroux, "Stealing Innocence: The Politics of Child Beauty Pageants" (CC 15). |
4/22 Donna Tartt, The Little Friend (2001) |
| 14 |
4/27 Tartt, The Little Friend |
4/29 Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (2003) |
| 15 |
5/4 Satrapi, Persepolis, cont. |
5/6 Conclusions: The End(s) of Childhood Postman, "The Disappearing Child" (pdf). |
|
Final Exam |
Friday 14 May, 12:00-1:55 |