Monday and Wednesday 11:35am-12:50 pm, Friday 1pm-4pm
Fall 2024
Instructor: Christopher McGowan
This course considers literary representations of childhood, the family, and education from antiquity to the present by reading across several traditions and genres, such as epic, tragedy, and the novel, especially the “novel of education,” or Bildungsroman. By examining fictional and non-fictional texts, including readings in psychoanalysis, pedagogical theory, contemporary parenting advice, and political and sociological analysis, we seek to understand seemingly natural or eternal aspects of human life (“childhood,” “the family”) as historically and socially constructed and, thus, as sites for political struggle and creative transformation. We conclude by discussing children’s literature and film, and the conflicting visions of childhood and “the future” these forms offer to adults and children.