Children’s Studies Seminar Series, School of Languages, Literature and Culture

Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature

From Librarianship to Childhood Studies via Liberal Humanism, High Theory, Post-Theory, Metamodernism and Pooh Corner

Professor Peter Hunt (Cardiff University)

Over the past 50 years, children’s literature has become a vibrant and important part of university-level studies worldwide. Approaches to it have been as diverse and lively (and problematic) as the subject-matter, having to deal with multi-media texts, the responses of non-peer audiences, fundamental issues of cultural, historical and literary values and psychological, educational and political influences. This lecture provides an outline of the fascinating and entertaining directions which the criticism of texts for children has taken.