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SUMMARY:Christianity and Children’s Literature  - Carl F. Miller\, Palm 
 Beach Atlantic University 
DTSTART:20181016T160000Z
DTEND:20181016T173000Z
UID:TALK112240@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucian Stephenson
DESCRIPTION:This talk will consider the complicated relationship between C
 hristianity and children’s literature over the past century-and-a-half\,
  with the objective to move beyond those mainstream English and American c
 hildren’s writers most traditionally associated with Christianity—such
  as C. S. Lewis\, J. R. R. Tolkein\, and Madeleine L’Engle. This study d
 oes not seek to privilege or promote Christianity as a faith\, but rather 
 to intellectually and objectively consider its changing association with c
 hildren’s literature and education over that time. The advent of Western
  compulsory/secular schooling in the mid-to-late 1800s coincided with the 
 rapid expansion of a specific literature for children\, and this same peri
 od witnessed the precipitous decline of the traditional Christian morality
  tale\, a form which had provided many of the earliest examples of modern 
 children’s literature. While these concurrent developments have caused m
 any to assume that the subsequent Golden Age of children’s literature an
 d its aftermath are resolutely secular in nature\, this talk will highligh
 t a more intricate reality\, suggesting through historical\, biographical\
 , and critical sources that many of the most significant children’s text
 s of the last one-hundred-and-fifty years have maintained continually-prod
 uctive relationships with Christian tradition\, culture\, and theology. Wh
 ile this talk will cover a wide range of subjects\, it will in particular 
 examine the influence of Christian doctrine on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
  Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871)\, th
 e complex relationship between Carlo Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio
  (1883) and the Roman Catholic Church\, and the contemporary balance withi
 n American picture books between Christian morality and secular ethics.\n\
 n\n\nCarl F. Miller is Assistant Professor of English at Palm Beach Atlant
 ic University (USA)\, where he teaches courses on children’s literature\
 , comparative literature\, and critical theory. Miller’s recent work inc
 ludes an examination of the existential dynamic of the snowman in internat
 ional children’s media appearing in IRCL last December\, and an analysis
  of Latin translation in children’s literature appearing in Bookbird in 
 February. His talk for today stems from his current book project\, a large
 r study of the influence of Christianity on children’s literature.\n\n
LOCATION:Mary Allan Building room 104\, Homerton College\, Hills Road\, Ca
 mbridge CB2 8PQ
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