20th Century British Children's Literature

A Certificate of Participation is awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/learning activities for the duration of the course.

This tutor-led, cohort-based online course is 7-weeks in duration and is made up of 5 teaching units.

Unit 1 - Golden Ages and New Girls (1900-1914)

This week will introduce and consider British children’s fiction published between 1900-1914. This was something of a “golden age” in children’s literature where many of the titles published are still considered as classics now, along with the rise of the school story and the birth of children’s literature as we recognise it today. We will consider how golden age fiction celebrated a particular idea of both child and childhood, the newly felt impact of girls as a readership, and the associated rise of the boarding school story. 

Learning objectives:

• To understand how educational and cultural reforms impacted upon the rise of popular children’s fiction for girls.

• To identify some of the key characteristics of golden age children’s literature. 

• To examine how golden age children’s literature constructed the child. 

Unit 2 - The War Years (1914-18 & 1939-1945)

This week will look at children’s fiction published during the first and second world wars.  We will explore the fierce patriotism of the first world war, with all its legacy of empire and colonialism, before then comparing this against the patriotism of the second world war.  We will also discuss how authors approached writing in wartime and how children’s literature came to function as a form of support and resistance for its readers.

Learning objectives:

• To recognise some of the differences between children’s literature published in World War One and World War Two. 

• To analyse how some authors for children approached their writing in wartime. 

• To understand how children’s fiction both contributed to and challenged the ‘home front’ national identity.

Unit 3 - New Beginnings and Radical Leanings (1950+)

The post-war period saw a period of radicalism in children’s literature with many new imprints being formed by publishers in order to explore a brave new world. We will consider how these imprints and their editors influenced post-war publishing and helped generate a new form of golden age literature. We shall also consider the foregrounding of representation and social diversity within children’s literature, how authors dealt with the legacy of their own and their reader’s wartime experiences, and the rise of the fantastical in children’s fiction.

Learning objectives:

• To consider how editors and post-war imprints guided and formed public taste.

• To recognise how authors for children dealt with the legacy of individual and collective war experience. 

• To understand the impact of changing ideas around children and childhood upon children’s literature.

Unit 4 - The Recession, the Natural and the Fantastical (1970+)

This week will consider how children’s publishing navigated the heightened political and personal circumstances of the 1970s. We will look at the rise of young adult literature and consider how the social and cultural movements of the wider world, such as financial austerity, impacted upon publishing for young people. We will also consider how authors looked towards the natural world for inspiration and how this interacted with ideas of the political. 

Learning objectives:

• To describe some of the differences between children’s and young adult literature.

• To consider the role of the “political” within children’s literature.

• To analyse some extracts of nature writing within children’s literature.

Unit 5 - A New Golden Age? (1990-2000)

The final decade of the 20th Century saw British children’s literature experience something of a cultural boom with the publication of titles such as the Northern Lights series by Phillip Pullman, the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling and the assertion of another “golden age”. Discussion also turned to issues of diversity and representation and publishing became increasingly big business. Students will consider the relationship between the industry and creativity, issues of representation within children’s literature, and how the children’s literature of this period talks back to what has come before. 

Learning objectives:

• To consider diversity and representation in children’s literature and in particular “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” (Dr Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990).

• To recognise and explain some of the overarching themes in children’s publishing of the twentieth century. 

• To consider the “golden age” of the nineties in relation to previous golden age periods.