Pullman's Ideolgy in Northern Lights

Children’s literature has become one of the major branches of literature. The first literature written specifically for children was intended to instruct them. Critics who study children's literature have found that what is viewed as appropriate reading for children adheres closely to a culture's notion of what a child is a notion that may change considerably from time to time. In the 18th and early 19th Centuries John Newbery - an English author and bookseller- , was the first publisher to dedicate himself to publishing for children. Newbery began to produce a series of chapbooks especially for children, starting with a little Pretty Pocket- Book (1744). He published this book with the motto 'Instruction with Delight'. He was influenced by Rousseau’s emphasis on proper moral development; written mostly by women. Newbery success and his book was the first children's book in which amusement rather than teaching. Another critic how discusses the beginning of children literature is Matthew Grenby in his essay, ‘Children’s Literature: Birth, Infancy, and Maturity’. He analyzed the rise of children’s literature in the eighteenth century. Peter Hunt in his article ‘Instruction and Delight’ is trying to answer this question (Should children’s books be for instruction or delight?). Children's literature is at root about issues of power and politics which adults impose consciously or not their own ideologies on children. Adults are exercising power because they write and children read. I will discuss Peter Hunt’s article ‘Instruction and Delight’ with reference to Philip Pullman’s novel Northern Lights.

Children now days are introduced to ideas which used to be kept from them. As if the society wants to stop children from being children any more. The ideology in children literature make children grow up quickly and unfortunately children innocent are being robbed from them. In children books, children are indirectly taken to the world of adult and their children are