LIT 4332 – 6076
Literature for the Young Child:  The Picturebook
Thursdays, Periods 9-11 (4.05 p.m. – 7.05 p.m.)

Dr. Anastasia Ulanowicz
aulanow@english.ufl.edu
Office:  4412 Turlington
Office Hours:  Tuesdays, 1-4 p.m., and by appointment

 Course Description

The picturebook is not an especially well-recognized or respected form in literary studies: its value is conventionally determined as merely educational or recreational.  The purpose of this class, however, is to question and possibly undermine conventional assumptions about the picturebook.   During the course of the semester, we will read a number of picturebooks alongside Jonathan Culler’s handbook, Literary Theory:  A Very Short Introduction, in order to interrogate the literary value of picturebooks – and in order to question how we define “literary value” in the first place.  Toward the end of the semester, we will study texts that are not traditionally considered picturebooks – for example, photo albums, graphic novels, short stories, and novels – in order to further challenge our assumptions about this rich and often misunderstood form.

Required Texts (Available at Goerings Bookstore)

Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory:  A Very Short Introduction

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

Barbara Lehman, The Red Book

Raymond Briggs, The Snowman

Leo and Diane Dillon, Rap-a-Tap-Tap:  It’s Bojangles – Think of That!

Maurice Sendak, In the Night Kitchen

Dr. Suess, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

The Three Little Pigs (Little Golden Book)

Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Ian Falconer, Olivia

Nick Bantock, Griffin and Sabine:  An Extraordinary Correspondence

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

 
Course Requirements

Attendance/Participation: 20%
Reading Quizzes/Short Responses: 20%
Midterm Exam: 30%
Final Essay: 30%

Attendance/Participation

Since this class meets only once a week, and since it is a discussion-based class rather than a lecture-based class, your regular attendance and participation is crucial.  If you miss more than one class, your final grade will be lowered by one letter-grade per additional absence.

I will excuse an absence so long as you provide me with proper documentation (e.g., a doctor’s note or a letter from a professor or coach).  If you plan to be absent for a religious holiday, please let me know in advance.

Reading Quizzes

Each week, I will give a brief reading quiz.  This quiz will measure the degree to which you read and analyzed the primary text assigned for that day; it will also test you on concepts covered in previous classes.

Occasionally, I will assign a short reflection paper of no more than one or two pages in length; often, I will ask that you send this paper to me via email before the next class meeting.

 Midterm Exam

 On Thursday, 23 October, you will use the time regularly scheduled for class discussion to complete a midterm exam.  This exam will test you on concepts and themes covered during the first half of the semester.  You will be required to bring in a picture book of your own choice in order to complete this exam.

 Final Paper

 You will not have to sit for an exam in this class.  Rather, you will have a week and a half to complete a cumulative take-home exam.

 
 Tentative Schedule

28 August:  Course Introduction

                    Email Assignment given

4 September:  What Do Picturebooks Have to Do With Theory?

                        Culler, Chapter One:  What is Theory?

11 September:  Are Picturebooks Really Literature? 

                        Culler, Chapter Two:  What is Literature and What Does It Matter?

                        Lehman, The Red Book

18 September:  If Picturebooks are Literature, Then So What?

                        McCloud, Understanding Comics

                        Briggs, The Snowman

25 September:  Picturebooks as Cultural Artifacts

                        Culler, Chapter Three:  Literature and Cultural Studies

                        McCloud, Understanding Comics

                        Dillon, Rap-a-Tap-Tap:  It’s Bojangles – Think of That!

2 October:  Meaning?

            Culler, Chapter Four:  Language, Meaning, and Interpretation

            Sendak, In the Night Kitchen

9 October:  Poetics and the Lyrical

            Culler, Chapter Five:  Rhetoric, Poetics, Poetry

            Dr. Suess, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

            (Today is Yom Kippur – Let me know in advance if you’ll be missing class. 

This counts as an excused absence)

16 October:  Narrative and Metanarrative

            Culler, Chapter Six:  Narrative

            The Three Little Pigs (Golden Book)

            Sciezka and Smith, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

23 October: Midterm Exam – Bring Your Own Picturebook!!!

            (Reminder:  It’s never too late to start reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Incredibly

 Loud and Extremely Close. It may be the last book on our reading list, but it’s

 also the longest…)

 30 October: Identity and Performance

            Culler, Chapter Seven:  Performative Language

                        Chapter Eight:  Identity, Identification, and the Subject

            Ian Falconer, Olivia

6 November:  Picturebooks for Adults?

            Bantock, Griffin and Sabine

13 November:  Everyday Picturebooks

            Heidi Julavits, “Marry the One Who Gets There First:  Outtakes from the

 Sheidegger-Krupnik Wedding Album”  (***to be available online)

            Marianne Hirsch, “Re-Framing the Human Family Romance” 

(***to be available online)

20 November:  The Graphic Novel

            Bechdel, Fun Home:  A Family Tragicomic

27 November:  No Class – Happy Thanksgiving!!!

4 December:  The Imagetext

Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

            Final paper topic(s) given.