Paper Topic–Children’s Literature

While tossing around ideas for potential paper topics, I kept coming back to children’s literature.  This is because I will be studying abroad this summer in London and the topic of the course is children’s literature.  In particular, we will be looking at the author’s commentary on social, political, economic and cultural structures that are embedded within the text.  And, yes, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are a few of books to be examined.  While Amy Miller from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader thinks that children’s literature is for “dumb people with short attention spans,” I tend to disagree.  As a child, series such as Harry Potter were what made me such an avid reader.  I have since branched off to authors such as Gore Vidal, a satirist and historical fiction writer, and Kurt Vonnegut, author of the brilliant book Slaughterhouse-Five.

I expect that the hardest part about writing this paper will be pulling in too many examples and not focusing enough on the publisher’s and reader’s reactions to children’s literature.  I am sure that I will continually be revising my paper’s content to narrow the focus of my topic.

About Ed Battistella

Edwin Battistella’s latest book Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels was released by Oxford University Press in March of 2020.
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