This course is being taught face to face on campus.
Course Description:
This course focuses on Indigenous children’s and young adult (YA) literature in Oceania.
A pervasive but incorrect view of children’s literature is that it is an inferior genre. However, the criteria to evaluate it is the same as other genres of literature, with arguably a more important purpose—to engage children’s imagination, build knowledge and creativity, instill empathy and critical thinking skills, and cultivate the pleasure of reading. These are all important across the board, but perhaps more so for children who are often left out of mainstream books and discussions, such as those of Indigenous backgrounds in places like Oceania (the Pacific), where our cultures and lives are often negatively stereotyped, misrepresented, belittled, dismissed, or just plain ignored by settler colonial publishing houses, writers, and editors.
This course invites students to explore the often overlooked genres of children’s and young adult literature with a focus on Oceania. We begin with an introduction to the history of children’s literature and its development in the region. We will explore various genres of children’s literature, such as concept books (alphabet, counting, colors, shapes, etc.) geared towards early readers to graphic novels to young adult (YA) fantasy. We will develop a working understanding of vocabulary and terms, and discuss the purpose of children’s literature, particularly in cultural, political, and educational contexts. Some questions we will consider include: What is children’s literature? Why is it important to study, particularly in a Pacific context? How do we identify Indigenous/cultural aesthetics and themes? What about the role of indigenous and introduced colonial languages, translation, and pidgins/creoles? How do illustrations and visual imagery perpetuate or refute stereotypes? What makes some books controversial (i.e., why are specific audiences troubled by certain texts? Why the vigorous and renewed call to ban books)? What other questions come up in readings and studying Oceanic Children’s Literature? Why do these questions matter?
Throughout the semester, students will encounter texts that invite multi-layered, diverse readings including Indigenous-focused, post colonial, historical, aesthetic, feminist, and queer interpretations, amongst others.
Course Requirements:
- An annotated bibliography
- A “book talk” (short individual presentation on a concept book for young readers)
- Reaction paper responses, library-based collection assignments, and questions for class discussion
- Lead a class discussion on a specific assigned reading
- Final research-based project with oral presentation (up to 4,000 words)
- Regular attendance, participation in informal class activities and discussion; doing the reading
- Exams (midterm, final, quizzes)
Possible Texts:
- Horner, Kathleen. From Cover to Cover, evaluating Children’s Literature.
- Marsh, Selina. Mophead.
- Parker, Lehua. One Boy, No Water.
- Thompson, Tulia. Josefa and the Vu.
- Wendt Young Lani. Mata Lulu—Stories from Sāmoa for Children.
- Shorter readings such as scholarly essays will be posted on Laulima.