top of page

Syllabus Exchange

Welcome to the Syllabus Exchange Community. For more information about how to make your syllabus more international, please Click Here

To join the conversation or to request more feedback about building global children's literature syllabi, please join the Facebook group Syllabus Swap: Children's and YA Literature. This is a private page so you will need to send a request.

Sample Syllabi

Italian Children's Literature from Unification to the Present

Maria Truglio, The Pennsylvania State University

Syllabus Exchange Italian Children's Lit.jpg

From Pinocchio’s confrontation with the nagging Cricket, to an enchanted sewing needle that tortures the evil Queen, to the lowly Zero who becomes a big shot Ten: children’s literature often aims both to entertain and to teach. Because these stories seek to form their young readers, they can serve as a useful lens through which to identify and assess the values, aspirations, and self-images of their culture. Reading a range of fairy tales, short stories, picture books, nursery rhymes, and novels, we analyze how these texts reaffirm and/or call into question the political, moral, religious, and economic trends in Italy from the late nineteenth century to the present. Throughout, we consider the changing ways in which these books imagine what it means to be Italian and what it means to be a child. Conducted in Italian, the course also aims to help students improve all their linguistic skills in the target language. 

Caribbean Children's Literature

Karen Sands-O'Connor, Buffalo State University

Where the flame trees bloom, going home, a thief in the village, anaconda, trapped in dunston's cave, time swimmer, tales from the west indies, the humming bird t

This course examines aspects of Caribbean literature through the lens of children’s literature; Caribbean history, language, and other factors affecting the creation, publication, and distribution of literature will be discussed

Children’s Literature in an International Context

Vanessa Joosen, Tilburg University / University of Antwerp

The Kingdom of Fantasy, Pinocchio, beyond babar, jip en janneke, friedrich, histoire de babar

During this course students acquire an understanding of how children’s literature functions in an international context. They are able to analyze translations of children’s literature in the light of trends in cultural exchange and different images of childhood. They broaden their knowledge of international classics and are able to interpret these by relying on the theoretical paradigms that currently prevail in the international field of children’s literature studies (translation theory, polysystem theory, imagology, childhood studies, postcolonial theory, glocalisation). They develop insight in how cultural diversity is reflected (or lacks reflection) in children’s books. The classes are clustered around three themes:

  • The translation of children’s books

  • International classics

  • Children’s literature and cultural diversity

Innocents Abroad: Youth National Identity, and the Travel Narrative

Emily Murphy, Newcastle University

Young Fu of the Upper yangtze, dumpling days, the house of sixty fathers, the innocents abroad, my life in china and america, yung wing, to little readers, the coral island, american born chinese

In this course, originally taught at NYU Shanghai, we will explore how travel can serve as a lens for understanding national identity and how it works in the twenty-first century, particularly for young people. We will study both traditional travel narratives, where the protagonist strengthens her national identity through her travels, as well as more contemporary travel narratives that encourage young people to adopt a cosmopolitan perspective. The course will also focus on a range of national literatures, but will place a special emphasis on American and Chinese texts as a way of considering our own unique position in a Sino-American educational institution.

Multicultural Literature: The Anatomy of a Bestselling Children’s Novel

M. Tyler Sasser, University of Alabama

The Little Prince, Pinocchio, Parrot in the oven, Victor Martinez, Island's End, Padma Venkatraman, American Born chinese, inside out and back again, Thanhha Lai, the whale rider, anne of green gables, Witi Ihimaera

What makes a children’s novel a bestseller? Is it memorable characters? A scintillating subject matter? Provocative descriptions? A masterful plot? Does it vary across time, culture, and ethnicity? To answer such questions, this senior seminar will work to discover the bag of tricks many authors use in creating narratives and ideologies that resonate with both the reader and the market. Further, the course will give particular attention to the fact that children’s literature, unlike adult literature, is read by a variety of ages, thereby raising compelling questions regarding ownership, authorship, and definitions of childhood.

To contribute an entry to this list, please email chlainternational@gmail.com with your name, affiliation, a PDF of the course syllabi, syllabus title, and a brief description (150 words) of the course. Use the email subject heading Syllabus Exchange. 

bottom of page