Constructing Childhood: A Brief History of
Children’s Literature
English 305
Dr. Roggenkamp
What is “children’s literature?” What is “childhood?”
• Meaning of “childhood” is socially constructed, constantly evolving
• Books “for children” reflect dominant cultural ideals
• Reinforce ideas about behavior, morality, gender roles, class structure, etc.—shape reader
• Reflect ideological lens of writer, culture—not created in vacuum
Image: Rosemary Adcock, “Orphan Series”
Analyze children’s literature in order to .
. . • Uncover culture’s views of
“childhood”—or ideal view• Examine society’s concept of
self• Interrogate individual author’s
relationship to broader cultural context
• Viewed across time, provides insight into our own concepts of childhood and “normalcy”
Image: Arthur B. Houghton, Mother and Children Reading, 1860
What did “childhood” mean: Historical Highlights of Western Civilizations
• 400 years ago: children born in state of sin; childhood reading about religious guidance, indoctrination
• 250-300 years ago: “invention of childhood” as modern concept; children’s minds “a blank slate”—fill with proper information
• 200 years ago: children naturally innocent; moral compass to society
• 40 years ago: children need to read about harsh realities of life
Middle Ages / Medieval Era(500 – 1500)
• Low literacy—class-based • Childhood generally ignored—short
and not so sweet• Medieval epics, romances, histories
for adults also held children’s interest (e.g. Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood, lives of saints, historical legends, etc.)
• Mingle “reality” with magic, fantasy, enchantment; animal characters
European Renaissance, Religious Reformation (1500 – 1650)
Printing Press (mid 15th century):• Most important technical innovation
since wheel• Print books in quantity—reduce time,
labor, cost• Increased literacy, promoted
education, disseminated knowledge and practice of reading
• New merchant middle class—value education, literacy
• Protestantism
Image: Replica of early Gutenberg press
Protestantism & Roots of “Modern Childhood”
(English & American colonial Puritans; 17th & early 18th centuries)• Ideal of universal literacy
• Children products of original sin; a time to prepare for adult religious experience
• Instructional books, conduct books• Primers: teach reading, but also turn
innately sinful children into spiritual beings
• Themes of death, damnation, conversion
Image: From New England Primer, circa 1690
A little light bedtime reading . . .
• Popular reading for Protestant children: Book of Martyrs (1563); The Day of Doom (1662)
• Anti-Catholic account of “Bloody Mary” reign
• Poem of damnation of world• Horrific scenes of violence,
mutilation, murder
Images: Thomas Foxe, Book of Martyrs, 1563; Michael WIgglesworth, The Day of Doom, 1662
Enter “Modern Childhood”: The Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries)
• John Locke (1632-1704), Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
• Young mind as tabula rasa (blank slate)
• Children not burdened by original sin• Logical beings awaiting proper
education• Whole new construction of childhood—
distinct and special phase of life Image: John Locke
Enter “Modern Childhood”: Romanticism (late 18th/early 19th centuries)
• Children naturally innocent, moral – “The child is the father of the man” (William Wordsworth)
• Books should free children’s imaginations—not be based in idea of natural sinfulness NOR based in logic
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile (1755)—Children should be raised in natural settings, free to imagine
Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child
• Complicated role of “fairy tales”• Enlightenment culture disapproves of folktales
for children—too “childlike,” not LOGICAL• But Romantic poets/philosophers
(Wordsworth, Coleridge, et al.) argue we can learn from children’s imaginations and from “primitive” stories
• “Fairy tales” deemed appropriate only for children
Image: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Child With an Apple, late 18th century
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New
Child• Charles Perrault (1628-1703)• Tales from Times Past; or,
Tales of Mother Goose (1697)• Retellings & “literary”
renderings of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
• Some explicitly directed toward children
Image: Histoires ou Contes du temps passé avec des moralitez, 1697
Late 18th/Early 19th Centuries: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child
• Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm• Nursery and Household Tales
(1812-1815) directed explicitly toward children
• “Clean up” folktales; develop Perrault’s “literary” fairy tales
• Rewrite to fit Victorian sensibilities, 19th century ideas about morality, politics, social class, etc.
Image: Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, illus. Arthur Rackham, 1917
