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ENG32640

Academic Year 2024/2025

Girlhood in 21stC American YA (ENG32640)

Subject:
English
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
English, Drama & Film
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Assoc Professor Niamh Pattwell
Trimester:
Autumn
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

How is ‘Girlhood’ imagined and represented in the 21 st Century? How does Young Adult fiction, as a specific genre, conform to and disrupt dominant ideas of Girlhood in relation to class, ‘race’ and agency in the US? This course engages with concepts of gender and genre to explore how ‘Girlhood’, as a social construct, is made and unmade in a range of YA fictional text and films. We will be reading YA texts as interventions in gender construction and place those readings within the context of 21 st Century America - through the Trump years and the present febrile politics of censorship and culture wars. Text for the course include Justina
Ireland’s, Dread Nation (2018), Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give (2017), Meredith Russo’s If I was Your Girl (2016) and the films Hunger Games (2012) and Barbie (2023). Note that YA fiction is often lengthy and students are expected to read the
novels in full.
This course is schedule for face-to-face delivery but may be shifted online in the interests of public health

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of the module students should be able to:
• Demonstrate an ability to understand genre and how patterns emerge across YA texts.
• Explore the complexities of gender constructions in YA texts
• Identify the constructions of girlhood in relation to race, class and heteronormativity in YA fiction.
• Perform close-reading of texts leading to nuanced analysis.
• Engage productively with the theoretical contexts provided.
• Complete an extended essay on a topic related to the course.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1: Girlhood in 21 st Century US
Week 2: YA Fiction and the ‘culture wars’
Week 3: Girlhood and fairytales: At Midnight
Week 4: Gothic Girlhood: Dread Nation
Week 5: Dystopian YA I: Hunger Games
Week 6: Dystopian YA II: The Belles
Week 7: YA Romance I: Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
Week 8: YA Romance II: If I Was Your Girl
Week 9: YA protest fiction: The Hate U Give
Week 10: Barbie: Girlhood and consumer ‘Feminism’.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

20
Specified Learning Activities

80
Autonomous Student Learning

100
Total

200

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module will contextualize YA texts within appropriate historical and theoretical
frameworks. This is not a lecture driven course so seminars will be student led
with a series of discussion-based activities. This will followed by a short lecture
introducing key terms and contexts for the following week’s material. The seminars
will include:
• Student presentations (individual or group)
• Close reading exercises

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): 3,000 word essay Week 14 Graded No
60
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Scaffolding for your final assignment. Description in class. Week 4 Graded No
10
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Scaffolding for your final essay. Full description will be given in class. Week 7 Graded No
10
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Scaffolding for your final essay - essay plan. Week 10 Graded No
20
 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Indicative primary reading:
Antero Garcia, Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging
Genres, (2013)
Jessica Taft, Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americas
(2011)
Mark McGirl, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (2021)
Dahlia Adler et al, At Midnight: 15 Beloved Fairy Tales Reimagined
Justina Ireland, Dread Nation (2018)
Dhonielle Clayton, The Belles (2018)
Angie Thomas The Hate U Give (2017)
Stephanie Meyers Twilight
Meredith Russo, If I Was Your Girl (2016)
Hunger Games (dir: Gary Ross, 2012)
Barbie (dir: Greta Gerwig, 2023)

Name Role
Jennifer Gouck Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Assoc Professor Clare Hayes-Brady Lecturer / Co-Lecturer

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 Thurs 10:00 - 11:50
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