History of Art 24, Section 2
Imagined Orphans: Missing Parents in Children's Fiction (P/NP)
Professor Elizabeth Honig
Monday 9:00-10:00, 308B Doe Library, CCN: 05557From the days of Huck Finn, Pollyanna, and Mary Lennox up to Harry Potter, the central figures in children's literature have an improbably high chance of being orphans. Some are true orphans at the book's beginning, while in other cases the absence of one or both parents is a mystery whose resolution drives the book's plot. This seminar will explore parentlessness as a fantasy and a device in the writing of fiction for children from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. It will consider how the orphan represents an adult ideal of essential childhood in some novels, how it allows for a narrative of self-fashioning in others, and how it generally gives its reader a model for imagining eventual independence from the family. Rather than assuming that we have moved from the fantasies of Pollyanna to a more gritty realism of some orphan tales today, this course posits that all children's novels reflect their era's notions about normative childhood and about the psychology of children. We will remain aware of the tenuous relationship between these fictional constructs and actual narratives and conditions of children without parents. Seminar requirements include reading a children's novel each week, class participation, and a short comparative essay.
Elizabeth Honig is an Associate Professor in History of Art, specializing in the arts of Northern Europe from 1500-1700. Her most recent project concerns Jan Brueghel's artistic relationship to his famous but dead father Pieter Bruegel. She started reading fiction at the twelve-year-old level when she was seven and is still doing so today. Recently she has become involved with issues concerning the international transracial adoption of older children.
