Children's Literature

Major Trends

Children’s literature appeared in the second half of the eighteenth century, at the middle Ages and Renaissance which were the beginnings of the book and didacticism. At that time were few adults and children who had access to books and reading.

500 BCE-1400

500BCE and 400 CE are considered the birthplace of western culture, while Greek civilizations were considered in decline. Children grew up with imaginative and classical stories, which were inspirational and retelling. People way of entertainment was oral tradition, such as, storytellers, poems, and recited stories. The Catholic Church dominated social and political manners, and education was a luxury. Biblical stories were the most important recite stories. Romantic tales excited children. Around 1400s there was the rebirth of the ideals of Greece and Rome. The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg

Middle Age

The culture was imprisoned in palaces and monasteries, and the few books that had access were marked by a great didacticism that sought to indoctrinate moral and religious beliefs. Apparently this time the children hear with pleasure poems, stories and folk tales that were not, in principle, intended for young audiences. The influence of oriental ancient world was much dominated in the middle Ages. The invention of printing, put books in the hands of children who at that time only knew them by oral versions, and the discovery of the ancient world brought to light numerous fables of antiquity. Philosophers and thinkers of the time began to consider the children literature as a course of teaching.

Early Nineteenth Century

In the early nineteenth century, Romanticism and its exaltation of the individual, favored the rise of fantasy. Many authors searched popular literature as the source of inspiration and tracked in the remotest parts of their old country, legends for children. As a consequence, great earlier writers became, over the years, classics of children’s literature. The eager response of children to myths and fairy tales, make them assumed that their minds had an unlimited capacity for imagination and could pass without difficulty from reality to fantasy. Thus, the nineteenth century was the beginning of writer’s career. This century put children into a magical world populated by elves, fairies, ghosts and witches, and ended up offering a literature that anticipated benefits and even scientific advances at that time.

Finally, in the nineteenth century children’s literature acquired its autonomy. Children’s psychology, interests and experiences were taken into account by writers who make their characters more vivid, giving them inner life and making them grow throughout the stories. Throughout this century, literature emerged with characters that quickly connected with young audiences and became protagonists of

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