(MA) Children’s Literature and Literacies

This module studies current discourses and debates surrounding children’s and young people’s encounters with literature from the foundation of their ‘literate lives’ at home and at school. It is part of a suite of four fifteen-credit modules complementing the literary critical approaches and methodologies outlined in the core thirty-credit module, ELI70921.

Children’s Literate Lives begins by debating the perception of children as readers drawing on individual memories of childhood reading to explore discourses about the nature, function and definition of children’s literature and literacy. This exploration will involve examining how texts aimed at young people convey, complicate and challenge ideas about children and childhood.

The module fosters a broad, current and inclusive critical understanding of ‘literacies’ and being ‘literate’ by investigating how children and childhood are shaped by embodied literacies. It investigates and critiques different arguments, drawing upon discourses from the sociology of childhood, children’s literature studies, and literacy and language development to reflect on how children and childhood are perceived and represented in texts which are created for them, and on the influence of schooling on children’s literacies.

The module examines the history of literature written for children as well as critical debates in children’s literature. It is part of a suite of four fifteen-credits modules complementing the literary critical approaches and methodologies outlined in the core thirty-credit module, ELI70921.

This module investigates a range of texts written for children, including fiction, poetry, picture books, and non-fiction. It will explore different perspectives on diversity and representation in children’s texts and consider how texts and their interpretations are influenced by different political, social, historical and cultural contexts.

The module promotes an awareness of patterns of stylistic experiment and revision in the development of literature for children. It further develops students’ ability to recognise and define characteristic literary features, subjects and styles of this literary genre. It also offers opportunities to reflect on the development of literary genres, their theorisation, and their reception

This module explores a range of research methodologies and methods appropriate for researching children’s literature and literacies. It is part of a suite of four fifteen-credits modules complementing the literary critical approaches and methodologies outlined in the core thirty-credit module, ELI70921.

Researching Children’s Literature and Literacies considers conducting research with children. It addresses research ethics and integrity to investigate the complexities and challenges of practitioner research, with specific attention to notions of power when working with children, young people, families and communities. It further develops the students’ understanding of how to apply theoretical perspectives in researching children’s literature and how to plan ethical research focused on literacies.

The module enables students to develop a critical understanding of research design and explore a variety of ways of answering research questions and reporting and representing findings, and their ethical challenges.

This module engages with key trends, issues and genres connected to children’s literacies and literature to consider their current existence and future directions. It is part of a suite of four fifteen-credits modules complementing the literary critical approaches and methodologies outlined in the core thirty-credit module, ELI70921.

In the twenty-first century children’s literacies and literature are increasingly contested and complex concepts that are defined by divergence and multiplicity and continue to be transformed by a plurality of text types including digitally afforded cultural practices. There is an ongoing tension between their traditional, (written) textcentred origins and the current reality where ‘texts’ are conceived in the broadest possible sense and books are transformed into visual, lived, literary experiences.

Connecting to current cultures of digital literacies, this module examines visual literacy and children’s experiences of texts in a range of formats and media such as picture books, films and digital applications. It looks into current movements for increased diversity in children’s literature and considers key publishing trends tied to the commodification of childhood by going ‘beyond the book’ to explore the various ways in which publishers present and re-present texts for modern-day young readers.

This module investigates the complexities of the poetics and politics of representing identity in English Studies through current and up-and-coming theories and critical perspectives that expand literary studies. It explores relationships between identity formation and the aesthetic and semantic qualities of narrative, poetry, and dramaturgy. Identity studies offers an interdisciplinary framework to re-examine sex, gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, culture and nation with an emphasis upon issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Poetics and Politics of Identity furthers and deepens students’ knowledge of models of research strategies and literary scholarship, which are introduced during the core module ELI70921 Critiquing and Theorising Literature, and their interactions with and applications of evolving theories, inquiries, and proposals and methods relevant to rethinking being human and reshaping the poetics and politics of identity in English. It promotes an active critical engagement with recent challenges and evolving areas of exploration in this field of studies and consolidate students’ ability to synthesise and interrogate a range of sources.

This module investigates how integrating interdisciplinary research methods and digital Humanities have challenged, changed and stretched English Studies. It explores the critical and methodological approaches at the core of contemporary literary studies by engaging with developing, recent, and up-and-coming theories and research methods that shape current research and those that are emerging and will shape future trends and open new possibilities to further knowledge.

Critiquing and Theorising Literature aims to keep students’ scholarship and interaction with the discipline current debates through contemporary scholarly inquiries, theories, and proposals. It advances and consolidates their awareness of the models of research and theoretical frameworks and their role as researchers in terms of ethics and integrity. It will engage students with a range of theoretical approaches and critical frameworks to reflect on research methodology and scholarship

This module represents the culmination of the MA degree programme. Drawing on the scholarly frameworks, theories and practices established in previous modules, the MA Dissertation gives students the opportunity to undertake an extensive piece of independent research based upon a topic of their own choosing. It builds on the
knowledge and skills acquired throughout the programme and challenges students to demonstrate their capacities for sustained research, scholarly evaluation, critical positioning, high level academic production and research ethics and integrity.

After initial group sessions covering the scholarly, research, and communication skills that are necessary to the realisation of an independent, extended written project, the students’ dissertations will be supervised by an individual supervisor, chosen according to the topic of their individual projects. The group sessions will highlight the importance of transferable skills such as an advanced level of competence in formulating, planning and executing an extended written project.

Students will reflect on potential challenges and provide guidance on motivation, adaptability, problem-solving, autonomy and resilience. They will also gain a refreshed understanding of the support, resources, and institutional facilities available to support them. After the submission of a research proposal outline, students will work independently on their approved topic, under the guidance of a supervisor, to produce a dissertation.