Modern and Contemporary Children's Literature
Module Code: MELEN4MAC
Module Convenor: Dr Stefania Ciocia
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This option module is open to all MA students.
This module examines a range of children's literature, young adult fiction and crossover writing, focusing primarily on texts published in the twentieth and the twenty-first century. As part of this temporal framework, it also analyses the influence of earlier classics on modern and contemporary culture, through their permanence in the canon and/or revisitations, sequels and adaptations (such as for example, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland). The module thus encourages students to consider historical changes in the definition of childhood and adolescence (as well as, of course, adulthood), and related developments in the publishing industry and the wider cultural production for these different – albeit often overlapping – target audiences.
Assessment
4,000 word research essay (100%)
Illustrative Module Texts
Students are advised not to buy books until the set texts for each year have been finalized.
Texts will be chosen from a list which may include but is not restricted to:
Sherman Alexie, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
J. M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy (1911)
Frank L. Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1899)
Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes (1981)
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War (1974)
Jenifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light (2003)
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
Geraldine McCaughrean, Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006)
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003)
Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2001)
Philip Pullman, Northern Lights (1995)
Meg Rosoff, What I Was (2007)
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1949)
Art Spiegelman, Maus I (1986) and Maus II (1991)