English Children's Literature (Week One)

9.17.2015
Week 1: Orientation


1. Literature: Literature is traditionally described as the body of writing that exists because of inherent imaginative and artistic qualities. 
(1)  Q: What is literature for?
       A: It's a tool to help us live and die with a little more wisdom, goodness and sanity.

  
 (2)   中西差異比較:
    中國的兒童文學是啟蒙(童蒙)書(Didacticism),是具有教訓意味的，然而 西方兒童文學是屬於有趣型,以好玩為主。
    We read for pleasure.
      


2. Children's Literature:  It can be broadly defined as anything that children read. It includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are enjoyed by children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
(1) Reference:A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature 

3. Classification by genre: 
(1) picture books: Books includes lots of pictures, most often aimed at young children.
     Example:The Tale of Peter Rabbit

(2) fairy tales: A fairy tale (pronounced /ˈfeəriˌteɪl/) is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy characters, such as dwarves, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, mermaids, trolls, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments.
    Examples: Puss in Boots

(3) fables: Fable is a succinct fictional story that features animals, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to an interpretation of a moral lesson , which may at the end be added explicitly as a pithy maxim. 
    a) Aesop's fable: Short animal tale with moral lessons.

    b) parable: A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters. A parable is a type of analogy.
    c) allegory: An allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor.

(4) nursery rhymes: A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for young children in Britain and many other countries.
     Examples:  Mother Goose 

       
(5) fantasy/ adventure: Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. An adventure is an exciting or unusual experience.
    Examples: (a) toy fantasy Winnie-the-Pooh; (b) animal fantasy Charlotte’s Web

4. How to take great notes?
(1) conclusions
    Q: central themes
    A: ...
(2) color pens
(3) review

5. Vocabulary
(1) juvenile (adj.) of, by, or for a young person who is not yet an adult
e.g. If you have the courage to do something juvenile and enjoy it, you know you have confidence. 
(2) Good gracious Oh my god
(3) sanity (n.): normal or sound powers of mind
e.g. A person's sanity is their ability to think and behave normally and reasonably. 
(4) obscene (adj.): offensive, rude, or shocking, usually because of being too obviously related to sex or showing sex
e.g. He was jailed for making obscene phone calls.
(5) queer(adj.): beyond or deviating from the usual or expected 
e.g: If you ask me, there's something kind of queer going on.