Love, Friendship, Identity, Family, but also Death, Racial Inequality and Gender concepts are common themes in contemporary children’s literature. This course wants to introduce students to the growth and historical development of British and American children’s literature during the last one hundred years. The textual basis for this class will be children’s texts from the Anglo-American tradition which have been published in the twentieth and twenty-first century, ranging from influential literature such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Winnie-the-Pooh to unforgettable classics such as E.B.White’s Charlotte’s Web to poems by Shel Silverstein and contemporary picture books for children. Next to the possibility to explore children’s literature from a variety of facets and deepen one’s understanding of cultural concepts, this course will introduce you furthermore to critical approaches to children’s literature and examines the development of children’s literature as an academic field. 

Next to common Prüfungsleistungen (critical papers or presentations), students interested in working with visual and audio-visual technology are able to record or animate contemporary literature for young children (primary school level) for the active/qualifizierte Teilnahme.