Constructing Childhood: The History of

Early Children’s Literature and the Place

of Fairy Tales

English 507

Dr. Karen Roggenkamp

Image: Orbis Sensualium PictureFacsimile of 1672 English Edition

What is “children’s literature?” What is “childhood?”

Meaning of “childhood” is ideological—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 ideal views

of “childhood” Examine society’s concept of

self Interrogate individual author’s

relationship to broader cultural contexts

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? Key shifts:

“Augustinian” paradigm (17th Century, Puritans): Children innately corrupt, sinful; animalistic nature (self will) must be constrained; spiritual objectives; instruction through punishment

“Educationalist” paradigm (18th century; Locke): Children’s minds offer a blank slate (tabula rasa) on which to write; neither good nor evil by nature; intellectual and moral objectives; instruction through logic and reason; literature “to instruct and delight”

“Natural Educationalist” paradigm (18th-19th centuries; Rouseau): Children innately pure, wise; “childlikeness” (self will) must be developed and protected from corrupting social institutions; emotional and moral objectives; instruction through non-directive means

40 years ago: children need to read about harsh realities of life

“Children’s Lit” in Ancient World (roughly 50 BCE / BC - 500 CE / AD)

Oral tales – heard, not read Hybrid audience—children and

adults alike Aesop’s Fables—animal tales

with pointed morals—not just for children

Guide/shape citizenry; entertain

Image: John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop, 1673-75

Middle Ages(500 – 1500)

Low literacy—class-based Childhood generally ignored—

short and not so sweet “Little adults”—cf. portraiture Medieval epics, romances,

histories for adults also held children’s interest (e.g. Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood, lives of saints, historical legends, etc.)

Medieval Fables(500 – 1500)

Mingle “reality” with magic, fantasy, enchantment; animal characters

Literature rich with “childlike” elements (wonder, mystery, fantasy, etc.)

Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans), late 13th century: moral tales; animal tales; familiar story plots for centuries to come (Boccaccio, Chaucer, Shakespeare)

Image: Early Manuscript, Gesta Romanorum

European Renaissance(1500 – 1650)

Printing Press (mid 15th century): Print books in quantity—reduce

time, labor, cost Increased literacy, promoted

education, disseminated knowledge and practice of reading

Eventually change nature of childhood, children’s literature, and fairy tales

Image: Replica of early Gutenberg press

Bad Boys and Girls: Protestantism, 17th-century

Puritans, & Roots of “Modern Childhood”

Ideal of universal literacy Children products of original sin;

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), Anti-Catholic account of “Bloody Mary”

The Day of Doom (1662), poem of damnation of world

Images: Thomas Foxe, Book of Martyrs, 1563; Michael Wigglesworth, The Day of Doom, 1662

Children can be Reasonable, too: The Enlightenment (late 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—rational writings Whole new construction of childhood

—distinct phase of life Image: John Locke

Romanticism (late 18th, early 19th centuries): Enter Innocence

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Emile (1755)—Children

should be raised in natural settings, free to imagine

Children naturally innocent, moral – “The child is the father of the man” (Wordsworth)

Books should free children’s imaginations

Romantics influence writers of Golden Age

Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Folktales, Fairy Tales, and the New Child Complicated role of “fairy tales” in literary

history of 18th, 19th centuries Romantic interest in folktales—collect

“authentic” culture But Enlightenment thinkers disapprove—

folk culture too “childlike” and fantastic “Fairy tales” eventually deemed appropriate

only for children and “the folk” (peasant, “simple,” lower class)

More educated could be intellectually interested in folk culture and the LITERARY tale

Key Figures of Literary Fairy Tale

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

Key Figures of Literary Fairy Tale

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 19th-century sensibilities and ideas about morality, politics, social class, etc.

Image: Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, illus. Arthur Rackham, 1917