Approaching language, literature and childhood

Introduction

This free course, Approaching language, literature and childhood, introduces you to the field of children’s literature. In this course, you’ll consider issues such as: How do children acquire and use languages and literacies? Why (and how) is language important in children’s literature? Why (and how) is literature important for children and young adults? How is childhood socially constructed? And how is the child represented in literature?

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Figure 1 Reading and writing in English

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This is a collage of four colour photos. The first is of a stack of eight books, the spines facing the viewer. Many of the spines include illustrations and are brightly coloured. The second photo is of three children sitting in front of a full bookshelf, looking down at open books. The third photo is of five children lying on the grass, propped up on their elbows and writing in books. The fourth photo is a long bookshelf with shelves full of books in varying sizes and colours.

Figure 1 Reading and writing in English

Children’s literature is a vast and growing area of academic study. Interdisciplinary in nature, the field draws on theories, methods and applications from language, literature and childhood studies. While an academic domain in its own right, the study of children’s literature generally has a personal connection for individuals, hooking into our own memories of reading and viewing particular works.

Most of us have some level of familiarity with poems, rhymes, cartoons, graphic novels and other forms of storytelling from our own childhood, from children we interact with as adults, or from engaging with literature for children as adults ourselves. But how does this material influence us as children or as adults? Do the books we read – or engage with through films, computer games, plays or other means – serve to expand or limit our worldviews? And how can the disciplines of linguistics, literature and childhood studies help us to explore the world of children’s books?

In this short course, you’ll begin to address these and other questions. You’ll start by considering what it means to revisit children’s literature as an adult reader and begin thinking about literature in terms of its purpose. You’ll start considering two novels written for children, Marianne Dreams and Tom’s Midnight Garden, and learn some introductory linguistic techniques to help you identify how these works achieve their intended effects. You’ll then consider diversity and inclusion, and at the end of the course, you’ll think about how you could recommend children’s books to others.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course L301 Language, literature and childhood [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . L301 situates children’s literature in the context of language practices and conceptualisations of childhood from the late twentieth century to present day literature through the lenses of three disciplines: language studies, literature, and childhood studies.