Help with my Dissertation Title

Oldernotwiser

ianbrown wrote: »

Thinking of going with ' Is there such a thing as a Children's book?' and looking at them historically, when they were more instructive tales, through the modern day, such as Harry.

Looking at hidden messages in literature. Didactic/ Christain Allegory

Looking at can authors write for children when they're not one?

Who decides on what is a children's book? Children? Parents? Critics?

If anyone has any thing to add to this to help with the cause please do so.

Thanks again

That would be absolutely fine but it's not what you said in your first post when you said that you planned to write your dissertation on Enid Blyton!

giantmutantbroccoli

Grimms fairy tales were originally written for adults, and later were edited by the brothers Grimm because people were complaining that they weren't suitable for children.
It's an interesting subject!
I read that in a Neil Gaiman interview. I'm so cultured

Write down all possible permutations of the topic you've chosen, make a rough plan of how you think you could write about it and show that to your tutor. They should be able to give you some pointers as to what's good and what would be too much. I've not done English lit, but your topic seems like it might be a bit broad. Try and work out how much page space you're going to devote to each section before you start, to help stop it from getting away from you.

OT Enid Blyton was a terrible racist. Discuss

magpiecottage

In my undergraduate days, we used to quote Noddy does Biology.

Why not have Noddy does English Lit to go with it? It will keep your Enid Blyton theme too!

Seriously, it might make a good title for discussing the issues of whether there is such a thing as a children's book or whether literature is dumbing down.

Errata

Compare and contrast Louisa Alcott with Jacqueline Wilson, drag in Freud, the pill, fathers who clear off etc etc and have some fun !

Prinzessilein

I am not an English specialist, I am a mathematician - but I have a passion for school stories. For part of my Post Graduate research I wrote a very well received research paper on 'How girls' attitudes to Mathematics have been influenced by school stories - from 1920 to the present day.'....and one of the authors I considered was Blyton.

Pwrhaps for your dissertation you could consider Blyton's use of language and how it has been 'adapted' for a modern audience. Obviously there is the removal of gollies as the 'villains' in Noddy. In the 'Island of Adventure' the servant of Philip/Dinahs aunt and uncle is a negro with rolling eyes - this has been altered in more modern versions. One of the main characters in the Faraway Tree series changes her name too - she was originally called Fanny, which again is considered inappropriate for today's audience....How does language develop? Who should have the right/responsibility of censorship? Should the works of Blyton be left unaltered and read in context?...plenty to work on on this topic!

Perhaps you could do a comparison of

leandaw_2

possibly too late for you to see this but one idea is looking at enid B from a feminist perspective. there is a huge amount in her books to use . looking at female roles and sexism in childrens books . also the stereotypes used and the roles given to boys compared to girls. u can look at sexism, the literature, time period and of course the effect on children. im sure you can get an interesting hypothesis out of that stuff. fancy doing it myself but chose the fallen woman and the angel at home instead .

spare rib reviews kids books
there is a book called ' pour out the cocoa janet, sexism in childrens books

Voyager2002

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Shouldn't an Eng Lit dissertation actually be upon (how shall I put this?) Literature?

Your point, I assume, is that Enid Blyton is not literature.

I thought the same, until I met an Indian PhD student (at Exeter University) who loved Enid B. and talked intelligently about her work for hours. I later found out that Enid B is still very widely read by intelligent people in India, where she is generally regarded as being close to a great writer.

So the obvious question, which a dissertation might well explore: given our views about the racism that pervades her work, why does she still have many millions on non-white enthusiasts?

olly300

Voyager2002 wrote: »

So the obvious question, which a dissertation might well explore: given our views about the racism that pervades her work, why does she still have many millions on non-white enthusiasts?

Her books are well written and show a stereotypical view of England.

Funny thing was while Enid Blyton books where banned in both my primary and secondary schools, due to her sexism and racism, everyone who was interested in books still read them.

As a result one year my headteacher used her books do discuss sexism with a class.