Books for children's education preceded the development of children's literature for pleasure. Schoolbooks were developed primarily to educate, teach morality, and assist in children's socialization. Although late twentieth-century works began to reverse this trend, many children today are insulated from discussions of death in their literature. In the early twentieth century until the 1970s, topics consideredÄisturbing to children, including death, were toned down and removed. Over the centuries there has been significant transformation of fairy tales, storybooks, and schoolbooks (basal readers). They contained material intended to provide moral guidance, and in the earliest versions of children's stories death was prominent because of its ubiquity and drama. As these tales were transcribed and developed specifically for children, they were modified to contain incidents and behavior that reflected the customs of the place and period in which they were told. Many featured coarse humor and sensational events. Most readers are unaware that every fairy tale has its own history, and many of them originated in the seventeenth century as oral, adult entertainment. A historical overview of children's literature, especially fairy tales, reflects society's attitudes toward children and death.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |