Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students will have developed their ability to:

Appreciate the significance of reading and fictional literature in the lives of young people
Critically analyse a literary text
Discuss a range of critical and creative texts in small and large groups
Communicate their ideas clearly and sensitively, both verbally and in writing
Engage with scholarly (peer-reviewed) literature
Enhance their own creativity through imaginative and reflective writing

Student Effort Type	Hours
Lectures	12
Tutorial	12
Specified Learning Activities	26
Autonomous Student Learning	50
Total	100

Not applicable to this module.

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  

Description	Timing		Component Scale		% of Final Grade
Participation in Learning Activities: This module seeks to encourage and reward those students who: • Have thoughtfully engaged with the weekly assigned reading • Participate actively in group discussion		n/a	Graded	No	10
Group Work Assignment: In groups of three or four, students will present on one of the six core texts for this module. The presentation should be roughly 15 minutes long.		n/a	Graded	No	30
Reflective Assignment: Four short writing tasks (around 400 words each) will be submitted by students throughout the trimester. Each writing task will be linked to one of the six core texts from the module.		n/a	Graded	No	60

 

Remediation Type	Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit	Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

Not yet recorded.

There are six core texts for this module.
Students are encouraged to source print copies of these texts as soon as possible (from UCD/local libraries or bookshops etc) and to bring their copies to class every week.


Primary Reading

1. Collins, S. 2008. The Hunger Games (New York: Scholastic)
2. O’Neill, L. 2015. Asking For It (London: Quercus).
3. Oseman, A. 2019. Heartstopper (London: Hachette Children’s Group)
4. Pullman, P. 1995. Northern Lights (London: Scholastic).
5. Rooney, S. 2018. Normal People (London: Faber and Faber).
6. Thomas, A. 2017. The Hate U Give (New York: Harper Collins)


I’ve included below some further reading that will hopefully aid your critical appreciation of the texts above, and that will act as starting points as you develop your individual writing tasks for the module.

Secondary Reading

Allen, Melissa. 2023. “In a Romantic Way, Not Just a Friend Way!”: Exploring the Developmental Implications of Positive Depictions of Bisexuality in Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper”, Journal of Bisexuality, 23 (2).
Banks, W. P. 2009 “Literacy, Sexuality, and the Value(s) of Queer Young Adult Literatures”, The English Journal, 98 (4).
Barros-Del Rio, M. A. 2022. ‘Sally Rooney’s Normal People: The Millennial Novel of Formation in Recessionary Ireland’, Irish Studies Review 30 (2).
Basu, B.; Broad, K.; and Hintz, C (eds). 2013. Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. (London: Taylor and Francis).
Day, S.K.; Green-Barteet, M.A.; Montz, A.L. 2014. Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction (London: Routledge).
Darling, O. 2021. ‘”It Was Our Great Generational Decision”: Capitalism, the Internet, and Depersonalization in Some Millennial Irish Women’s Writing’, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 62 (5).
Fitzsimmons, R. and Wilson, C.A. 2020. Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction. (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press).
Hill, C. 2012. ‘Dystopian novels: What imagined futures tell young readers about the present and future’, in J. Hayn & J. Kaplan (eds.), Teaching young adult literature today (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
Mahon, Á. and O’Brien, E. 2018. ‘Risky Subjectivities in Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Studies in Philosophy and Education 37 (2).
Moffatt, K. and May, M. 2021.’Death from all sides; Spectacle, Morality, and Trauma in Suzanne Collins’ the Hunger Games trilogy’, Mortality 26 (4).
Mooney, J. 2023. Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature: Gender and Power in Louise O’Neill’s Young Adult Fiction (New York: Routledge).
Owen, G. 2019. ‘Adolescence, Blackness, and the Politics of Respectability in Monster and The Hate U Give’, The Lion and the Unicorn 43 (2).
Rustin, M. and Rustin, M. 2003. ‘Where is home? An essay on Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy 29 (1).
Wood, N. 2001.“Paradise Lost and Found: Obedience, Disobedience and Storytelling in C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman”, Children’s Literature in Education 32 (4).
Zipes, J. 2003. ‘Foreword: Utopia, dystopia, and the quest for hope’, in C. Hintz & E. Ostry (eds.), Utopian and dystopian writing for children and young adults. New York: Routledge.