Tuesday 1 March 2011

What's a classic?

A lovely day was that ISSCL conference, so it was, so it was. A great line up of speakers from far and near, a brand new building, some fancy cookies and a heap of food for thoughts.
Here are a few tidbits:
  • is a classic a book that keeps being retold, rewritten and generally adapted in many shapes and guises?
  • is it a book to which different people bring different things and from which they take away different things?
  • do we still read Shakespeare today because his themes are still relevant or is it his language that makes him 'immortal' (so far)?
  • why did Mole uncork his beer?
  • why don't we wear powdered wigs anymore?
  • why does British (and Irish) children's literature view the countryside so positively and depict cities as hell or dangerous forest that one had better keep away from?
  • why does American kidlit do exactly the opposite?
  • what's in the Pollard collection in Trinity?
  • what's the percentage of teachers in training who have read Where the Wild Things Are?
  • who ate all the cookies?

[Thanks for the pic, Alice!]

1 comment:

  1. Wahou, il y eu tout ça comme questions ! Moi j'ai surtout vu les cookies... Mais ce n'est pas moi qui les ai finis, il en restait un ou deux ^_^

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