University of Strathclyde

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

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 2003-4: Resit Exam

Three-hour, open-book exam. Answer TWO questions.

Do not use the same material in both answers. Do not make extensive use of texts that you have written on in your essays; avoid altogether the short texts and passages that were examined in lectures and workshops. You should write about at least two texts in each of your answers.

1. Discuss the way either Locke's or Rousseau's concept of childhood has influenced children's literature.

2. What are the implications of the fact that children's literature is usually written by adults?

3. Why might adults find interest in reading, or studying, children's literature?

4. Happy ever after? To what extent is this an accurate description for the way children's novels and stories end?

5. Write about at least two texts from any one genre of children's writing (e.g., fantasy, fairy tale, school story, adventure, etc) that, in your view, deviates from that genre's conventions.

6. Are there good reasons for distinguishing between books for boys and books for girls?

7. How far can the literature for 'young adults' written over the last twenty years or so be described as children's literature?

8. To what extent is it important to understand the ways in which texts written for children interact with each other in intertextual ways?

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

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