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ENG10020

Academic Year 2024/2025

Children's Literature (ENG10020)

Subject:
English
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
English, Drama & Film
Level:
1 (Introductory)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Miss Siobhán Kane
Trimester:
Autumn and Spring (separate)
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This module will explore a range of children’s literature by an eclectic set of writers from different cultural and historical contexts, surveying the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through a series of lectures, students will read a variety of different texts. By the end of the course, through close reading and analysis, students will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of major children’s authors, identify different categories of children’s literature, and illustrate an understanding of how these works reflect key social, political and cultural issues, with a particular focus on less-obvious aspects of the texts, and some of their more radical underpinnings.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module the students will; have a knowledge of a range of children’s literature from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, be familiar with key concepts explored within the texts, and be able to write critically on children’s literature, identify them in the context of their cultural and historical contexts, demonstrate a critical understanding of children's literature as a literary genre, examine children's literature in the context of traditional forms of literature, write a scholarly essay, and understand why this period remains seen as something of a "golden age" for children's literature.

Indicative Module Content:

This module will explore a range of children’s literature by an eclectic set of writers from different cultural and historical contexts, surveying the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through a series of lectures, students will read a variety of different texts. By the end of the course, through close reading and analysis, students will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of major children’s authors, identify different categories of children’s literature, and illustrate an understanding of how these works reflect key social, political and cultural issues and remain so apposite today.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12

Specified Learning Activities

36

Autonomous Student Learning

52

Total

100


Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Key teaching approaches; interactive lectures, the first part of the lecture series concentrates on the nineteenth century texts, exploring some key concepts, culminating in the mid-term essay.

The second part of the lecture series concentrates on the twentieth century texts, unpacking the key concepts further, leading towards the final exam, which solely concentrates on this part of the course. There will be some interactive elements through Brightspace, but the main approach to teaching for this module is through dynamic lectures, drawing together less-obvious strands, from across pop culture and other sources to enhance the understanding of how layered these texts are.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Equivalents:
Children's Literature (ENG1001E)


 

Assessment Strategy Invalid Option
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): Mid-term essay relating to the nineteenth century texts on the course. 1250 words. Week 7 Graded No
40
No
Exam (In-person): End of term, two-hour exam, relating to the twentieth century texts on the course. End of trimester
Duration:
2 hr(s)
Graded No
60
No

Carry forward of passed components Invalid Option
No
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
Repeat Within Two Trimesters
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

+ designated office hours.

SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Alcott, Louisa May, Little Women (1868)
Andersen, Hans Christian, Fairy Tales (1843 – 1870)
Barrie, J.M., Peter and Wendy (1911)
Baum, Frank The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Blume, Judy, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970)
Dumas, Alexandre, The Three Musketeers (1844)
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1812)
Jansson, Tove, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948)
Lee, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
Lewis, C.S., The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Wilde, Oscar, The Happy Prince and other Tales (1888)

Secondary reading

Aries, Philippe, Centuries of Childhood (1962)
Lerer, Seth, Children’s Literature, A Reader (2008)

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Autumn Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - Autumn: All Weeks Wed 16:00 - 16:50
Autumn Once Off Offering 1 Week(s) - 13 Wed 16:00 - 17:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 16:00 - 16:50