University of Strathclyde

Department of
English Studies
Glasgow G1 1XH
0141-552 4400

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Essay Questions for Honours Students

In writing both essays, you should:

A) Bear in mind: (a) you should not discuss passages that have been focused on in lectures or seminars; (b) you will not be able to use the same texts in essays and the exam.

B) Make sure that you follow the essay guidelines in the Department's Guidelines on Assessed Work (accessed from the front page of the Children's Literature website). These guidelines include a link to the Department's Coursework Cover Sheet, which you should attach to the front of the essay.

C) You should also consult the class Essay Guidelines and the Example Student Essay (4th year).

D) Make use of at least two secondary sources from the library (i.e., books about the writer/text you are discussing and/or about the issue you are writing about). For suggestions, see the Critical Reading page on the class website, or search the library catalogue and shelves.

First Essay

Select any one text from the first semester set texts plus another text of your own choice (one that has not been included in the set texts) and write an essay of about 3,000 words that compares and contrasts how these texts relate to any one of the issues that the class is exploring. These issues might include questions of period, genre, national tradition, the nature of childhood, education, history, gender, literary form, text and illustration, and so on (see Class Description).

Second Essay

Write an essay of c.3000 words in response to one of the following questions.

1) Select any one of the second semester set texts, plus one book of your own choice that was written in the period since 1950, in order to explore the suggestion that the literature for young adults that began to appear in the second half of the twentieth century is unsuitable for children. (In answering this question, you should focus on literary technique as well as content.)

2) To what extent does the literature written for children or young adults since 1900 suggest that the child protagonist and/or child reader has become a 'knowing child' (i.e., as opposed to an 'innocent' child)? You can answer this question by using any one of the second semester set texts plus one book for children or young adults of your own choice written in the period since 1900. Alternatively, you could answer the question by comparing and contrasting any children's book from the nineteenth century with any children's book from the twentieth or twenty-first century.

3) What are the consequences of the fact that children's books in the twentieth and twenty-first century have become deeply intertextual? You should answer this question by using any one of the second semester set texts plus one book for children or young adults of your own choice written in the period since 1900.

4) To what extent, and with what consequences, can the analytical skills and theoretical knowledge developed for studying literature written for adults be used in interpreting literature written for children or young adults? You can answer this question by using any one of the second semester set texts plus one book for children or young adults of your own choice written in the period since 1900.

For further information about the Children's Literature class, please contact Dr Tom Furniss at t.furniss@strath.ac.uk

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