Since animals in fiction are never just animals, we will pay closer attention to how authors implement the supposedly non-human in children’s literature and beyond. While all animals in fiction tend to be anthropomorphic, we will take a closer look at the specific symbolic investment of ursids in order to inquire how the pedagogic nature of such fiction is enhanced or subverted. For this purpose, we will read Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894), A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington (1958). The general focus of the seminar is on the teachability of such texts, but we will generally inquire how literature engages in non-human perspectives to mirror more general truths about humanity at large in turn. Students should please read all three texts before the beginning of term as well as consider their adaptations.

Kurs im HIS-LSF