Quintessential to the Victorian cult of the girl-child, both Alice Liddell and Wendy Darling have emerged as contemporary mythic icons of both traditional and subversive femininity. In this class, we will investigate how girl-children are entrapped and enchanted in the works of men, focusing on J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, including the prototype, Alice’s Adventures Underground. We will also read biographies, letters, and the cultural discourse on the idea of children (such as Philippe Aries’ Centuries of Childhood). Additionally, we will dive into the world of Carroll’s other mechanism of capturing girl children: photography. Ancillary texts will include essays by Carol Mavor (Pleasures Taken; Reading Boyishly), James R. Kincaid (Erotic Innocence; Child-Loving), Catherine Robson (Men in Wonderland), Bruno Bettelheim (The Uses of Enchantment), and U.C. Knoepflmacher (Ventures into Childhood). We will also consider contemporary representations of Alice and Wendy and Henry Darger’s Girls and how they continue to be entrapped and re-enchanted.
Learning Outcomes:
- To interpret literature through historical, social, cultural, and literary
considerations as well as independently through one’s own critical
discoveries and curiosities;
oTo gain an overview of the image of childhood as applicable to historical
and cultural considerations;
oTo interpret a range contemporary and classical representations of texts
within contemporary cultural considerations;
oTo eloquently discourse on literature while retaining one’s individual
interpretation of a text.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Interested students should submit their very best literary scholarship. A past paper will suffice.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
Tu 8:30AM - 12:10PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 15
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 4000 , All courses , Cancelled Courses , Four Credit , Fully In-Person , Updates
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