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Education Programme
The digitised European historical children's book
collection featured on this site is the key resource in the delivery of an
education programme.
The programme is particularly aimed at teachers, students, literary historians
and researchers. It will focus on language, style, illustrations and book
production, examining both similarities and differences between books produced
in different European countries. European folk tales will be looked at in
detail comparing style and ethos between the different European examples.
The purpose of this Education Programme is to provide a starting point for those
wishing to discover European historic children's literature. The programme also
includes lists of currently available resources, including books, journals and
web sites. This site contains a valuable links page that will enable users to
access individual collections as well as bibliographic and educational
resources.
This education programme will focus on four main themes:
The study of historical children's literature is growing and involves the work
of universities, libraries, book dealers, and private individuals. We hope that
you will find the CHILDE web site is a value to you in exploring this
fascinating field.
Bibliography
The following text and journals have been recommended by the CHILDE partners as
an introductory reading list on the theme of historical children's literature.
Texts
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Avery, Gillian and Briggs, Julia (1989) Children and their books: a celebration
of the work of Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford: Clarendon
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Carpenter, H and Prichard, M (1984)
The Oxford companion to
children’s literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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Carpenter, H (1985) Secret gardens: a study of the golden age of children’s
literature, London: Allen and Unwin
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Hunt, Peter (1995) An illustrated history of children’s literature, Oxford:
Oxford University Press
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Hurlimann, Bettina (1967) Three centuries of children’s books in Europe,
Oxford: Oxford University Press (Europaischer Kinderbucher in drei
Jahrhunderten, translated by Brian Alderson)
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Muir, Percy (1969) English Children’s books, London Batsford
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Summerfield, Geoffrey (1984) Fantasy and reason: children’s literature in the
eighteenth century, London: Methuen
Thwaite, Mary (1972) From primer to pleasure in reading: an introduction to the
history of children’s books in England from the invention of printing to 1914…
London: Library Association 2nd edition
Journals
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Bookbird - A Journal of International Children’s Literature; IBBY Nonnenweg 12
Postfach, CH-4003 Basel Switzerland; ISSN 00067377; Published four times per
year
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Children’s Books History Society Newsletter;Secretary and joint editor Pat
Garrett , 25 Field Way, Hoddesden, Herts. EN11 0QN; ISSN 0955-4289; Published
four times per year
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Children’s Literature Association Quarterly; Children’s Literature Association,
P.O.Box 138, Battle Creek MI 49016 USA; ISSN 0885-042; Published four times per
year
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The Lion and the Unicorn; A critical journal of children’s literature; The John
Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 North Charles Street,
Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA; ISSN 0147-2593; Published three times per year
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Marvels and Tales; Journal of Fairy Tale studies; Wayne State University Press,
Leonard N. Simons Building, 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48201 USA;
ISSN 1521-4281; Published twice per year
Papers
Explorations into Children’s Literature; School of Literary and Communication
Studies, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125
Australia; ISSN 1034-9243; Published three times per year
Social and Cultural Context
Introduction
Children's literature offers an insight into the condition of childhood in the
past, as well as adult and institutional perspectives on and ideals of
childhood. It is important to recognise that such an insight is partial however
as it will depend on the limits of surviving texts and collections, as well as
the cultural and moral constraints facing writers and artists at the time.
The CHILDE site is predominantly focused on visual imagery from a very small
selection of historical children's books in the collections of the CHILDE
project partners. However by using the search page on this site, in particular
the subject and free text elements, it is possible to begin an exploration of
the social and cultural condition of children in Europe during the eighteenth
and nineteenth century.
The following select bibliography, as well as the more extensive links page
provides a valuable starting point for anyone wishing to extend their knowledge
of children and childhood before the twentieth century.
Bibliography
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Avery, Gillian (1975) A study of the heroes and heroines of children’s fiction
1770 1950, London: Hodder and Stoughton
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Butts, Dennis (1992) Stories and society: children’s literature in its social
context, London: Macmillan
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Darton, F J Harvey (1982) Children’s books in England: five centuries of social
life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ( 3rd revised
edition edited by Brian Alderson)
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Grylls, David (1978) Guardians and Angels: parents and children in nineteenth
century literature, London: Faber
Possible Practical Actions
Use Web site links, on the links page of this site, to search other web sites
containing more extensive or complete digitised collections, e.g. The Hockliffe
Collection - http://www.cta.dmu.ac.uk/projects/Hockliffe.
Make use of any e-mail facilities on these sites to seek further information,
to consult experts, to possibly arrange visits or presentations.
Compare historical children's illustrations from this site with equivalent
modern images of social and cultural issues, such as gender roles, poverty,
rural and urban life.
Compare illustrations on this site under the same theme from different European
countries, e.g. schools/education, employment, costume.
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels appears in the CHILDE collection in
English, Dutch, French and German translations, evidence of its truly
international character. Consequently, it provides rich material for examining
issues of travel; xenophobia; racism; sameness; difference etc. The images and
extracts from the text - available on the Internet - allow students to explore
their own reactions to people coming into their society from outside as
tourists, immigrants, refugees etc.
Historical
literature in Europe and the dramatic arts
Introduction
The changes affecting the social and cultural environment have a ripple effect
on the fantasy world of children, anytime, anywhere. This web site allows us to
show to today’s children, anywhere in the world, the images that have lived in
the dreams of children in different places and in different times.
To observe the reaction of today’s children to the images created in the past
for their peers and to images representing very different worlds and cultures
would indeed be interesting.
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Using images to prompt dramatisation
By following their imagination and the emotions triggered by the images shown on
the site, the children would develop in turn an independent tale, completely
separated from the original. Then, it will be the educator’s task to prompt the
dramatisation of the story and compare it later on with the story that the
image wanted to describe.
Examples:
Ducoudray,
Gustave, Cent récits d’histoire de France, Knights joust at a tournament
Hölder,
Luise, Kleine Weltschichte von den ältesten bis auf die neuesten Zeiten, The
boy leads the other two children in playing games with the pole, Two dogs stand
at the leaders feet.
Weisse,
Christian Felix, Der Kinderfreund: ein Wochenblatt. 10. Theil, The giant is put
on show, and is examined and stared at by the dwarves.
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Using images to analyse historical representations of theatre
From a different point of view, the Web site would be useful in order to analyse
with the children how illustrators in different times represented theatre, as a
place and scenic action, and to observe together the analogies and the
differences compared to today.
Examples:
Punch’s
Opera, Punch hits Judy over the head with the stick
Brun,
Élisabeth, Les roses de la sagesse:ou morale et plaisir, Women and children
watch a puppet shadow theatre
Gellert,
Christian Fürchtegott, Sämmtliche Fabeln und Erzählungen: in drei Büchern, The
auditorium and stage of a theatre. The wealthy sit in a box, the poorer
audience in the stalls, all await the performance.
Weisse,
Christian Felix, Der Kinderfreunf: ein Wochenblatt. 8 Theil, Theatre scene:
children pretend to be a ghost, other children follow it, whilst one is scared.
European
Folk and Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are prose narratives, passed on either
orally or in writing, in which the terms of reality are suspended and
make-belief is seen as a matter of fact. Animals that talk and magical objects,
fantasy journeys and miraculous transformations, punishment of evil and reward
of the virtuous are among the typical elements recurring again and again.
Research work differentiates between folk tales and
literary fairy tales. Whereas in the case of the former the author or narrator,
date and place of origin and reason for their creation are often unknown and
the tales have been changed repeatedly in the course of tradition, literary
fairy tales can be traced back to definite authors who make more or less
liberal use of the narrative form as well as of the characters and requisites
of the folk tale genre.
It is however impossible to make a clear distinction
because the collectors of folk tales, the brothers Grimm (Germany), Per
Christen Asbjörnsen (Norway), Alexander Afanasjev (Russia), Joseph Jacobs
(Ireland) and many others rendered the tales they had recorded largely in a
highly literary and stylised form. The conventional view, therefore, of the
folk tale being an anonymous collective creation of ‘the people’ has become
untenable. On the contrary, all known folk tales relate back to literary
sources or are the product of intensive reworking.
The European folk and fairy tales take their cues from a
globally dispersed wealth of motifs and happenings which are then specifically
re-formulated in the national literatures of the individual European countries.
Early records exist particularly of Italian (Straparola, Le piacevoli notti,
1550-53) and French collections (Perrault, Histoires ou contes du temps passé
(Stories and Fairy Tales of the Past), 1697). The Romantic movement of the 19th
century generated not only a multitude of fairy tale fiction and collections
but created, through the Fairy and Folk Tales of the brothers Grimm, a
stylistic model which has since been applied universally to the European folk
tale.
Bottigheimer, Ruth: Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. In:
Hunt, Peter (ed.): International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s
Literature. London/New York: Routledge 1996, 152-165
Klotz, Volker: Das europäische Kunstmärchen (The
European Literary Fairy Tale). Stuttgart: Metzler 1985
Lüthi, Max: Das europäische Kunstmärchen. Form und Wesen
(The European Literary Fairy Tale. Form and Essence). Tübingen: Francke 1992 (9th
edition)
Perrot, Jean (ed.): Tricentenaire Charles Perrault. Les
grands contes du XVIIe siècle et leur fortune littéraire (The Tricentenary of
Charles Perrault. The Great Fairy Tales of the 17th Century and
their Literary Wealth). Paris: in press editions 1998
Rölleke, Heinz: Die Märchen der Brüder Grimm. Quellen
und Studien (The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Sources and Studies).
Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag 2000
Soriano, Marc: Les Contes de Perrault (The Fairy Tales
of Perrault). Paris: Gallimard 1969
Opie, I. and Opie P.: The Classic Fairy Tales. Oxford:
University Press 1974
Zipes Jack: The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Oxford:
University Press 2000
General information:
www.maerchenlexikon.de
www.internet-maerchen.de
19th Century German stories:
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/menu.html
Folk Tale and Fairy Tale Cyber Dictionary:
http://www.op97.k12.il.us/instruct/ftcyber/
Fairy tale studies (linkcollection)
http://www.langlab.wayne.edu/MarvelsHome/Marvels_Tales.html
Grimm Brothers’ Home Page:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html
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Possible practical actions
Fairy tales have not always been as valued as they are
today. Until well into the 19th century they were the subject of
fierce debates and were classified by their critics as trivial literature
promoting superstition and subverting reality. After the fairy tale had been
incorporated into the school syllabus and used as an educational discipline the
pendulum swung in the opposite direction to such an extent that, towards the
end of the 20th century, this form of literature has been greatly in
demand for dream analysis and psychotherapy, moral education and solving
existential crises. Caution is, however, called for, particularly for the sake
of these marvellous, traditional stories themselves which should, first and
foremost, be taken for what they are: splendidly narrated stories, rich in
imagery and associations, appealing to the very young listeners and readers as
well as finding resonance with an adult audience.
As such, fairy tales offer multiple reference points for
didactic purposes, not only for school teaching but also for parent-child
communication in the home. The literary educationalist Kaspar Spinner has
formulated four principles to be observed:
1. The fairy tales reside first and foremost in the
imagination and should be allowed to blossom there […]
2. The fairy tale enables people to cope with problems
of everyday life under the protection of a symbolic guise. We should see this
as an opportunity and not enforce a revealing dialogue! […]
3. The fairy tale takes on a particular significance in
inter-cultural teaching because of its unifying, inter-textual references and
its reserved realistic form […]
4. The proactive engagement with fairy tales, that is
re-developing, rewriting and re-inventing them, colouring them, playing with
them and setting them to music, is, justifiably, considered to be the most
important educational work with fairy tales today. This should, however, not
lead us into getting lost in pure activism and into taking creativity as a
dispensation for thought.
Kaspar Spinner: Märchendidaktik heute. In: Märchen in
Erziehung und Unterrricht heute (Fairy Tale Didactic Today. In: Fairy Tales in
Education and Teaching) Kristin Wardetzky and Helga Zitzisperger (eds.).
Rheine, Europäische Märchengesellschaft 1997, 62/63
Illustrations from old (and new) books of fairy tale add
another, visual dimension to the narratives or reading texts: the pictures
accompanying the fairy tales tell their own variant version of the action. In
this way different meanings and interpretations are disclosed which can make
comparison a highly fascinating process.
Moreover, the illustrations offer a wealth of
complementary material in their detail and content. This means, not least, that
the illustrations can give further and more pointed evidence of contemporary,
national-cultural phenomena of the European countries in which they were
created than the texts themselves.
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Websites offering ideas and material for practical
work with fairy tales
CLWG Children’s Literature Web Guide
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
Fairy Tale and Folk Tale Cyber Dictionary
http://www.op97.k12.il.us/instruct/ftcyber/
Doucette Library of Teaching Resources
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~tflander/
Marvels and tales
http://www.langlab.wayne.edu/MarvelsHome/Marvels_Tales.html
The Reader’s Corner, European Style Fairy Tales
http://www.autopen.com/euro.fairy.shtml
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Material for individual fairy tales
Cinderella Stories
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/cinderella.html
The Beauty and the Beast home
http://disintegrator.net:8080/beauty/
Little Red Riding Hood Project home page
http://www-dept.usm.edu/~engdept/lrrh/lrrhhome.htm
Vandergrift’s special interest page (Snow White)
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/
Please note that the following section of the Education
Programme is under review and will posted on the site shortly:
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