Teaching: lectures – 30, seminars – 30
ECTS: 4
Lecturer: Associate Professor Dr. Maria Pipeva
Course contents
The course introduces the students into the specificity of children’s literature and the major methodological and theoretical tools in its study. The approach is interdisciplinary, encompassing perspectives drawn from a variety of academic fields, such as literary history and theory, translation and reception theory, child psychology, cultural studies. The peculiarities of children’s literature discourse and the translation strategies they call for are explored. The course surveys the history of children’s literature in English in comparison with the Bulgarian tradition, as well as its Bulgarian reception and the cultural factors that have influenced it. Other key topics are those of power and ideology in children’s literature, intertextuality, contemporary metamorphoses of the fairy tale. The seminars are intended to develop the students’ practical skills in translating fiction for children.
Course objectives
The course is meant to train qualified translators, editors and publishers of children’s literature translated from English, whose share in the thriving market of children’s books in Bulgaria is significant. At the same time, the expertise in this field will enhance the graduates’ opportunities for professional realization in other areas, such as the teaching of English to young learners, the media, etc.