This unit tracks the traditional genres from which children’s literature in English draws: myth, hero tale, folk tale and fairy tale. It explores how these originally oral tales have been adapted as a children’s genre, taking into account: historical and national variants; novel-length and Hollywood adaptations; and contemporary incarnations for adolescents and adults, from Batman to Buffy and beyond.
This unit introduces students to a range of theoretical resources for the interpretation of the historical and cultural assumptions these tales encode about gender, race, class, nationality and the environment.
