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2015/16 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL32122 Where the Wild Things Are: Animals in Children's Literature

20 creditsClass Size: 40

School of English

Module manager: Dr Richard De Ritter
Email: r.deritter@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2015/16

Pre-requisite qualifications

Please note: This module is restricted to Level 2 and 3 students. Enrolment priority will be given to Level 2 students for a restricted period (as detailed in the School’s Module Handbook).

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Objectives

This module explores the presence of animals in children’s literature from the eighteenth century to the present day. Students will investigate the evolution of children’s literature across the last three centuries, considering the ways in which it informed by cultural, political and scientific developments. Students will also encounter philosophical writings on animals, and will develop a critical vocabulary for discussing the literary representation of human and non-human subjects.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
- an awareness of the development of children’s literature across the last three centuries
- the ability to interrogate the complexity of writing about non-human subjects
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
- the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning;
- research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
- IT skills;
- efficient time management and organisation skills;
- the ability to learn independently

Syllabus

From its emergence as a commercially and culturally recognisable genre of writing in the mid-eighteenth century to its popularity in the present day, children’s literature has repeatedly featured representations of animal life. From Sarah Trimmer’s family of talking robins, to the sufferings of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, to Michelle Paver’s depiction of the kinship between human child and wolf cub, for centuries writers have drawn upon a perceived affinity between children and animals. Frequently, animals provide a convenient stand-in for humans: writing about them offers a means of naturalising social, national, and racial hierarchies. But placing animals at the centre of children’s literature can also blur the natural and cultural boundaries that divide the human and the non-human.
In this module we will investigate the motivations for, and the implications of, this persistent turn to the non-human. We will explore the various guises that animals take in children’s literature, and consider the ethical and cognitive challenges involved in writing about them. To gain a critical perspective on these issues, we will refer to a range of philosophical and theoretical contexts, including eighteenth-century theories of education, nineteenth-century science, and contemporary animal studies. We will also chart how children’s literature itself has evolved over the last two and a half centuries, and consider how those generic developments reflect an enduring interest in the ways that we think about non-human animals and about ourselves.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Meetings	2	1.00	2.00
Lecture	3	1.00	3.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Teaching will be through weekly seminars (10 x 1 hour) plus up to 5 additional hours (content to be determined by the module tutor). For ENGL32121 the 5 additional hours include 3 lectures and the return of unassessed/assessed essays.

Private Study: Reading, seminar preparation, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Seminar contribution.
- Unassessed essay of 1700 words (submitted during Week 7). This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but is a requirement and MUST be submitted. Students who fail to submit the unassessed essay will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass).

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	This module will be assessed by one essay of 4000 words (including quotations and footnotes). One unassessed essay of 1700 words is also required (submitted during Week 7). This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but is a requirement and MUST be submitted. Students who fail to submit the unassessed essay will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass).	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 22/04/2015

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