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Peter Hunt (born 1945) is a British scholar who is professor emeritus inEnglish andchildren's literature atCardiff University, UK, and adjunct professor in the School of English at Dublin City University.
Hunt was a pioneer of the academic study of children's literature as a literary, rather than educational, discipline at university level, and 'he has been instrumental in creating a world network of those whose research concerns are located in this domain'.[1] The courses that he ran at Cardiff from 1985 were the first of their kind in the UK. He has lectured on children's literature at over 150 universities, colleges and to learned societies in 23 countries, and over the past few years he has been visiting professor at Trinity College, Dublin, Università Ca’Foscari Venice, Newcastle University and Hollins University, Roanoke VA, USA.
He has written or edited 38 books and over 600 papers, reference book entries, and reviews on the subject. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Serbian. In 1995 he was given the Distinguished Scholarship Award from theInternational Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, in 2003 the Brothers Grimm Award for services to children's literature, from the International Institute for Children's Literature, Osaka.,[2] in 2018 a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Universita degli Suor Orsula Benincasa, Naples, and in 2020 the Anne Devereaux Jordan Award for Distinguished Service to Children's Literature from the Children's Literature Assiciation, USA.
Hunt's main preoccupations have been to reconcile mainstreamcritical theory and practice with the unique demands of texts for children, and to provide accessible resources for the discipline. He coined the term 'childist criticism', 'a position rather than method' that addresses 'what some regard as a weakness in children's literature studies: the tendency to use theories from other disciplines rather than generate original approaches, and it can usefully be compared with ...écriture feminine’.[3] 'He argued that 'criticism should seek to understand children’s books in the economic, psychological, educational and personal contexts in which they are read by children'.[4] This approach, and a contentious attempt to distinguish between books that are for children and books thatwere for children, were developed inCriticism, Theory and Children's Literature (1991) andChildren's Literature [Blackwell Guides to Literature] (2000). Major reference works includeChildren's Literature: an Illustrated History (1995),International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature (2nd edn. 2 vols, 2004),Children’s Literature: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (4 vols, 2006) andThe Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature. The Traditions in English (2005).
He has edited five classic children's books forOxford University Press's 'World’s Classics'. Ironically, he is probably the world authority onThe Wind in the Willows having written two books about it, despite maintaining that it is not a children’s book.[5][6]
His most recent work includes a co-written comparative study:The Fabulous Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio (2018).[7] and three volumes for the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
'As novelist and critic he seeks to create an active role for the reading child'.[8] His four 'slightly avant-garde' children's books[9] one of which,A Step off the Path (1985) has been described as 'the first post-modern children’s novel[10]’ experimented with narrative structures. In recent years he has self-published and has had privately printed seven experimental novels for his grandchidren.
