scholarly journals ‘Once upon many times Little Red Riding Hood’: Introducing contemporary children’s literature to senior learners

2021 ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Karla Fernández de Gamboa Vázquez ◽  
Xabier Etxaniz
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Academic Program ◽  
The Social ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Little Red Riding Hood ◽  
The University

Inspired by the idea of Lifelong Education, the University of the Basque Country decided to open its academic program to senior learners, creating the ‘Experience Classroom’ College. This college, aimed at people over 55 who are not currently working, offers a specific Degree in Human Sciences. One of the compulsory courses of this four-year degree is ‘Language and Literature’. The aim of this paper is to present the short-term project to teach children’s literature conducted in that course, in which we presented a general overview of the changes that have taken place over recent decades in the production of children’s narrative to senior learners. To do so, we analysed the intergenerational classic tale of the Little Red Riding Hood and compared its contemporary retellings, since this fairy tale is a shared literary reference that has been reinterpreted throughout the history of children's literature according to the social, moral, and literary concerns of each moment. After concluding that most of the learners only knew the Brothers Grimm’s versions of the tale, we read both Perrault’s and Brothers Grimm’s version and discussed their differences. In the subsequent lessons we brought 25 diverse contemporary retellings of the fairy tale to reveal that postmodern trends, a more psychological characterisation of the characters, the social criticism of the modern lifestyle as the underlying theme, humour and parody as a literary game, along with the incorporation of the visual code in its narrative and semantic construction, are some of the features that characterise contemporary children’s literature.

The Alluring Nature of Children's Culture: Fairy Tales, the Carnival and the World Wide Web

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Željka Flegar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Time Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Culture ◽  
Language And Ideology

This article discusses the implied ‘vulgarity’ and playfulness of children's literature within the broader concept of the carnivalesque as defined by Mikhail Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World (1965) and further contextualised by John Stephens in Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction (1992). Carnivalesque adaptations of fairy tales are examined by situating them within Cristina Bacchilega's contemporary construct of the ‘fairy-tale web’, focusing on the arenas of parody and intertextuality for the purpose of detecting crucial changes in children's culture in relation to the social construct and ideology of adulthood from the Golden Age of children's literature onward. The analysis is primarily concerned with Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes (1982) and J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2007/2008) as representative examples of the historically conditioned empowerment of the child consumer. Marked by ambivalent laughter, mockery and the degradation of ‘high culture’, the interrogative, subversive and ‘time out’ nature of the carnivalesque adaptations of fairy tales reveals the striking allure of contemporary children's culture, which not only accommodates children's needs and preferences, but also is evidently desirable to everybody.

Cultural and Social Inclusion Efforts – A Significant Aspect of Early Lithuanian Children’s Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-68
Author(s):  
Džiuljeta Maskuliūniene ◽  
◽  
Bronius Maskuliūnas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Inclusive Society ◽  
The 19Th Century

Children’s literature is an important part of national culture. Its mission has always been to help mature a young person, to form valuable foundations of personality. The aim of the article is to reveal the work of early Lithuanian children’s literature, especially of the 19th century, playing an important role in the life of society, i. e. playing the role of a mechanism of cultural and social inclusion, changing society and human mentality. It is necessary to emphasise that the field of children’s literature discussed here also includes early Lithuanian writing, which cannot be directly considered children’s literature, but it undoubtedly integrated the care for children (in the form of catechisms, elementary publishing, etc.). What functions of cultural and social inclusion did the texts intended for children (or also for children) perform, and what impact did they have? Methods used: sociology of literature, cultural analysis, interpretation of the text. The phenomenon of inclusion is an important aspect of Lithuanian children’s literature and culture. This is also testified by the history of Lithuanian books for children and works of particular writers. It is significant that in the cultural situation of the 19th century, children’s literature contributed to overcoming children’s illiteracy and helped create and unite the readership community in the making. Children (and often youth) were getting used to the book, a completely new form of communication for them. Little by little, people became aware of the importance of reading, writing, and education in general. Some texts of educational type have been left by Lithuanian writers of the 18th–19th centuries, and their traditions were continued by the creators of the early 20th century, portraying the fate of the book smuggler, the wish of a country child to learn, the authority of a published book, and other similar aspects. The book and the ability to read decrease seclusion, include the child and the youth into community life, and open wider horizons for thinking. Different aspects of inclusion (and there are more of them than mentioned in this paper) can also be found in modern children’s literature. A book and literature dedicated to the child or young person help to survive social seclusion, isolation and show the ways and means of overcoming them. Finally, children’s literature adjusts to the social environment, participates in society modelling, change, and establishes itself as an integral part of an inclusive society. Today children’s literature is perceived as an integral part of an inclusive society.

Children, Death, and Fairy Tales

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth P. Lamers
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Little Red Riding Hood

This article examines the evolution and transformation of themes relating to death and dying in children's literature, using illuminating parallels from historical demographics of mortality and the development of housing. The classic fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” is used to draw these trends together.

scholarly journals Transformacje wzorców baśniowych w literaturze dziecięcej obecnej na współczesnym rynku wydawniczym

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 135-151
Author(s):  
Kamila Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Sleeping Beauty ◽  
Snow White ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Little Red Riding Hood

Transformation of fairy tales patterns in children’s literature available on the contemporary publishing marketWhat the contemporary publishing market offers the youngest readers are texts that make various forms of fairy tale characters — a  strongly representative group among them consists of texts that are transformations of fairy tale patterns that are deeply rooted in the mass imaginations including children’s imagination, which promote a  new version of a  well-known story: fairy tale renarrations. Such texts not only constitute evidence of changes in the fairy tale genre, but also prove the continuous updates on fairy tales. The aim of the article is to present and discuss how the authors modify specific characteristics of the fairy tale and play with its tradition. The examples of recognizable fairy tale patterns that are deeply rooted in the culture Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella were used to present the primary mechanisms of use and modification of fairy tales in children’s literature on the post-2000 Polish publishing market.The description of intertextual relationships between the fairy tale patterns and their renarrations renarration mechanisms has been supplemented with an analysis of influence of popular culture on children’s literature interpenetrating of cultural and literary circulations and the fashion for fairy tales. The studied works include those that have been written with gender education in mind, promotion of knowledge on rights of a  child or the environment and those primary aim of which is to entertain the young audience through reading. The article is also an encouragement to reflection on the genealogy of contemporary fairy tales and the shape, in which the “children’s fabulous fairy-tale-sphere” functions, and the factors that influence it.

A Confrontation between Two Doctrines: The Birth of Struggle for Hegemony in Hebrew Children's Literature during the 1930s and 1940s

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAEL DARR
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level ◽  
First Time ◽  
Literary Quality

This article describes a crucial and fundamental stage in the transformation of Hebrew children's literature, during the late 1930s and 1940s, from a single channel of expression to a multi-layered polyphony of models and voices. It claims that for the first time in the history of Hebrew children's literature there took place a doctrinal confrontation between two groups of taste-makers. The article outlines the pedagogical and ideological designs of traditionalist Zionist educators, and suggests how these were challenged by a group of prominent writers of adult poetry, members of the Modernist movement. These writers, it is argued, advocated autonomous literary creation, and insisted on a high level of literary quality. Their intervention not only dramatically changed the repertoire of Hebrew children's literature, but also the rules of literary discourse. The article suggests that, through the Modernists’ polemical efforts, Hebrew children's literature was able to free itself from its position as an apparatus controlled by the political-educational system and to become a dynamic and multi-layered field.

The Roman Retail Revolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Food And Drink ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Tabernae were ubiquitous among all Roman cities, lining the busiest streets and dominating their most crowded intersections, and in numbers not known by any other form of building. That they played a vital role in the operation of the city—indeed in the very definition of urbanization—is a point too often under-appreciated in Roman studies, or at best assumed. The Roman Retail Revolution is a thorough investigation into the social and economic worlds of the Roman shop. With a focus on food and drink outlets, and with a critical analysis of both archaeological material and textual sources, Ellis challenges many of the conventional ideas about the place of retailing in the Roman city. A new framework is forwarded, for example, to understand the motivations behind urban investment in tabernae. Their historical development is also unraveled to identify three major waves—or, revolutions—in the shaping of retail landscapes. Two new bodies of evidence underpin the volume. The first is generated from the University of Cincinnati’s recent archaeological excavations into a Pompeian neighborhood of close to twenty shop-fronts. The second comes from a field survey of the retail landscapes of more than a hundred cities from across the Roman world. The richness of this information, combined with an interdisciplinary approach to the lives of the Roman sub-elite, results in a refreshingly original look at the history of retailing and urbanism in the Roman world.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document