U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

Volume X, Number 1

The History of Childhood and Children’s Literature: An Interactive Website

The History of Childhood and Children’s Literature: An Interactive Website will provide a resource that will enable the 400 students who take children’s literature courses each year to obtain needed background knowledge of the field. Providing information about the genre of children’s literature and the history of childhood, the site also will narrow the knowledge gap between students enrolled in the certificate program and those who take any of the three courses as electives.

Marah Gubar Photo by Mike Drazdzinski, CIDDE

The project director, Marah Gubar, English, says the three faculty who teach in the program have rcognized a need for the resource. The overall goal of the Website will be to illustrate the sometimes subtle and complex nature of children’s literature and to give students a sense that childhood and children’s literature have a history. Timelines will document children’s books and the history of childhood, providing a sense of the changing views of childhood throughout history, including the medieval period, the Renaissance, the romantic age, and the contemporary era. Within this documentation, laws specifically aimed at children will be included. (In eighteenth century England, for example, a law was passed prohibiting sending chimney sweeps, who were usually children, down a chimney with a burning fire!) Additionally, links will connect to an annotated “art gallery” of the evolving image of children. For example, in the seventeenth century, infants were portrayed stiffly as small adults, a marked contrast to the natural, flexible images of today. Online quizzes will allow students to check their own knowledge and monitor their progress.

In addition to Gubar, faculty at Pitt and from other institutions will contribute essays in areas of expertise. She anticipates English faculty from outside the University’s children’s literature program and from other institutions will take full advantage of the site. She points out that children’s literature is a growing field, and Pitt’s program is more rigorous than most, providing an ideal setting to create this unique project. With assistance from CIDDE staff, she hopes to have the basic design online by fall, and will continue to add to the site.

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