British and American Images of Childhood

Senior Assist. Prof. Dr Maria Pipeva
Lectures: 30
Seminars: 30
ECTS credits: 6

Concepts of the child and the specific culture of childhood are an essential aspect of any society and culture. The course aims to introduce students to the distinctive British and American perspectives in this field, by tracing the evolution of key Anglo-American ideas of childhood as a historical, aesthetic and social construct from the Enlightenment to the present. Lectures and seminars will be devoted to analysis and discussion of a variety of mechanisms through which “the child” is constructed in a wide range of texts: fiction, poetry, films, media texts and advertisements. The topics include the emergence and development of children’s culture and literature; language, power and ideology in children’s literature; the child in the discourse of nationalism; gender identities in children’s fiction; the specificity of translating for children and the reception of Anglo-American children’s literature in Bulgaria. Assessment is based on: class participation (30%), an oral presentation (30%) and a term paper (40%). To do the course, students should have a background in the humanities. The course is conducted in English.