Study of children's literature (Syllabus I)

Abstract

Studies of children's literature may be divided into two categories; historical studies and studies by types of works. The former traces development of children's literature through ages generally extending its scope to contemporary social and educational background. The latter desects aspects of different types of children's literature and evaluates their values by established standards.In the past, most of the studies of children's literature in Japan were of the historical approach and the subject treated in the studies was almost solely fiction by modern writers.It is no question that Japan today is one of most advanced countries as far as publishing is concerned. The very interesting coincidence is that the number of new titles of children's books annually published during the past few years in U.S.A., Great Britain and Japan is approximately the same numbering about two thousand titles.Yet general studies of children's literature in Japan is still way behind comparing with other two countries.This syllabus based upon the lecture experience of the author at the School of Library and Information Science, Keio University tries to cover most outstanding types of children's literature. The types are arranged in such a way as to match developmental stages of children. Exemplary works and reference books, though limited to ones available at the library school collection and other limited sources, have covered foreign materials as well as Japanese equivalents.