Children\'s Literature Sample essay questions 2011 and 2012 PDF

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A list of essay questions given to students for completion in the '11/'12 academic year....

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UNIVERSITY OF READING School of English and American Literature CHILDREN’S LITERATURE UNASSESSED ESSAY QUESTIONS [SAMPLE QUESTIONS]

Write an essay of minimally 4500 and maximally 5000 words on one of the following titles [this is the formal assessed essay rubric, but for the unassessed essay, please write an essay of around 2000 words.] You may use texts you have read on the course and texts you have not read on the course, as long as the texts are from the Twentieth century or later. 1) ‘Many children’s books ... feature children obviously wiser than the adults they encounter in the story’ Discuss. 2) ‘Children’s literature of the fantastic suggests either high drama -- battles between the powers of lightness and darkness -- or stuffed animals capering about a nursery world after hours.’ (Louisa Smith). Discuss with reference to AT LEAST THREE texts. 3) ‘It is a curious fact that few ... juvenile domestic tales have felt equal to depicting a complete family.’ (Gillian Avery). Discuss ideas of ‘family’ in AT LEAST TWO texts. 4) Discuss ideas of schools, school-life, and/ or schooling in relation to AT LEAST TWO texts. 5) Discuss ideas of ‘history’ or the past in AT LEAST TWO texts. 6) ‘Place is all important.’ (Janet Fisher). Discuss in relation to AT LEAST THREE texts. 7) ‘The term “metafiction” is used to refer to fiction which self-consciously draws attention to its status as text and as fictive.’ (Robyn McCallum) Discuss. 8) ‘The foreigner or outsider is always defined in relation to a normality and familiarity’. Discuss. 9) ‘The “real” of a text is as fictional as “fantasy” or “dream” ’. Discuss. 10) ‘In children’s literature, as in any literature, what is important is not which story is told, but how the story is told.’ Discuss narration in AT LEAST TWO texts....