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MRes Children's Literature

  • Year of entry
    2023/24
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  12 months Part Time: 24 months
  • Year of entry
    2023/24
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  12 months Part Time: 24 months

Gain an in-depth knowledge of approaches to – and the history of – children's literature with our fully-taught MRes in Children's Literature, Britain's oldest accredited master's degree on children's literature from literary perspectives.

The University of Reading is 6th in the UK for research outputs in English Language and Literature (Times Higher Education analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework 2021 – English Language and Literature, when scoring by GPA Output). 

Our MRes in Children's Literature is an interdisciplinary degree, engaging with childhood studies and children's media. You will learn through small seminar group teaching and one-to-one dissertation supervision by renowned specialists.

You will also receive outstanding preparation for various careers in cultural, educational and media industries, or for further study through a PhD. For example, some of our students have spent part of their time with us on placements with employers such as publishers.

The University of Reading is ranked in the top 150 universities in the world for English Language and Literature in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022. You will have full access to the University's many facilities, including the Library, Sports Centre, and Reading University Students' Union, and all students benefit from departmental facilities and events such as research talks and guest lectures, especially the research seminars run by the Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL).

The MRes in Children’s Literature is run under the aegis of the CIRCL. Our teaching staff are all CIRCL researchers and world-leading specialists in aspects of childhood and children’s literature, publishing in leading international journals and producing edited volumes together, as well as each publishing monographs in the field. Their research includes work on theoretical approaches to childhood, gender and sexual identities, childhood and neuroscience, childhood and animals, childhood and film, childhood in nineteenth-century English fiction, and theories of pedagogy.

For more information, please visit the Department of English Literature website.

Overview

Gain an in-depth knowledge of approaches to – and the history of – children's literature with our fully-taught MRes in Children's Literature, Britain's oldest accredited master's degree on children's literature from literary perspectives.

The University of Reading is 6th in the UK for research outputs in English Language and Literature (Times Higher Education analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework 2021 – English Language and Literature, when scoring by GPA Output). 

Our MRes in Children's Literature is an interdisciplinary degree, engaging with childhood studies and children's media. You will learn through small seminar group teaching and one-to-one dissertation supervision by renowned specialists.

You will also receive outstanding preparation for various careers in cultural, educational and media industries, or for further study through a PhD. For example, some of our students have spent part of their time with us on placements with employers such as publishers.

The University of Reading is ranked in the top 150 universities in the world for English Language and Literature in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022. You will have full access to the University's many facilities, including the Library, Sports Centre, and Reading University Students' Union, and all students benefit from departmental facilities and events such as research talks and guest lectures, especially the research seminars run by the Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL).

The MRes in Children’s Literature is run under the aegis of the CIRCL. Our teaching staff are all CIRCL researchers and world-leading specialists in aspects of childhood and children’s literature, publishing in leading international journals and producing edited volumes together, as well as each publishing monographs in the field. Their research includes work on theoretical approaches to childhood, gender and sexual identities, childhood and neuroscience, childhood and animals, childhood and film, childhood in nineteenth-century English fiction, and theories of pedagogy.

For more information, please visit the Department of English Literature website.

Entry requirements

IELTS: 7.0 overall with no element less than 6.0 (or equivalent)

Entry requirements: Normally a good undergraduate honours degree (2:1 or above), or equivalent from a university outside the UK.

For the MRes, you'll need to submit copies of two essays you wrote during your degree (not on children's literature) and a 500-word statement of motivation.

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score, you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Structure

  • Year 1

Compulsory modules include:

X

Module details


Title:

Twentieth Century Children's Literature

Code:

ENMCH2

Convenor:

DR Sue Walsh

Summary:

This module aims to explore a selection of children's fiction, poetry and picture-books, and introduce students to a wide range of twentieth century children's literature.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Nineteenth Century Children's Literature

Code:

ENMCH9

Convenor:

DR Neil Cocks

Summary:

This module serves two main functions: firstly, to familiarise students with important children's fiction from the 19th century, including works by Charles Kingsley, Catherine Sinclair, Lewis Carroll, Charlotte Yonge, and Mrs. Ewing. Secondly, the module addresses theoretical questions to do, for instance, with genre, gender, and class, as well with literary history and period-definitions. The module therefore aims not just to discuss texts, but also to ask: why these texts? and what is 'history'? and, perhaps most importantly, what (if any) are the relationships between 'history' and the reading of texts?

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Dissertation

Code:

ENMCHD

Convenor:

PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein

Summary:

This module aims to enable students to conceive and select an appropriate topic on which to write a dissertation; and to read and analyse their selected texts closely in terms of the critical ideas and problems to which they have been introduced throughout the MA. This module also therefore aims to enable students to reconsider the formulations of their critical arguments further, in terms of how and why they may present their analyses in their dissertations.

Assessment Method:

Dissertation 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Theory of Children's Literature

Code:

ENMCHT

Convenor:

PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein

Summary:

This module is taken by all students (in the case of part-timers alternately in their first or second year of attendance) to develop an ability to think through ideas which motivate and define 'children's literature criticism', and to analyse the assumptions on which these, and ultimately all, critical approaches rest.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Code Module Convenor
ENMCH2 Twentieth Century Children's Literature DR Sue Walsh
ENMCH9 Nineteenth Century Children's Literature DR Neil Cocks
ENMCHD Dissertation PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein
ENMCHT Theory of Children's Literature PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein

Optional modules include:

X

Module details


Title:

Commonwealth Children’s Literature (Colonial and Post-colonial writing)

Code:

ENMCHCW

Convenor:

DR Sue Walsh

Summary:

This module aims to examine a range of texts from, or set in, selected Commonwealth countries (India, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and an Anglophone African country such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya or Uganda) by authors writing in both colonial and post-colonial contexts in order to consider issues such as: how far can these texts be related to one another through their use of generic conventions (for example, in realistic fiction or fantasy)? How far can the literature be related to national cultures and what constitutes national and cultural identity? How do critics define this, and how do they relate it to the reading of texts, or to notions of ‘literary history’ or genre? What issues are thrown up by the presentation of different languages and cultures in these texts? How are ideas of ‘society’, ‘culture’, or ‘history’ used in criticism to produce ideas of identity and ‘read’ texts as relevant to such identities? How useful is post-colonial literary criticism and theory for reading these texts? What are the implications of debates about ‘authenticity’ in relation to the representation of indigenous peoples and cultures in these texts? Note: the final choice of authors and works will depend upon the availability of texts in Britain.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Children's Film, Television, and Radio

Code:

ENMCHF

Convenor:

DR Neil Cocks

Summary:

This module aims to examine a range of texts from electronic media - film, radio, and television, while raising questions about how to interpret and analyse such texts. Further, critical works are examined critically to see how they define and approach these texts, and assumptions they make about differences in approach to film, radio, and television, and 'book texts'.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Myth and Folktale in Children's Literature

Code:

ENMCHM

Convenor:

PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein

Summary:

This module begins with the discussion of the oral tradition for children and the place of myth and folktale within it. The first part of the module will concentrate on the folktale and fairy-tale. Topics for discussion will include: the main theories of folktales and fairytales; the work of Perrault and the Grimms; nineteenth century fairytales; folktale and women; the way European folktales have been reworked for children in different forms (including the animated film of Disney and others) in this century; and folktales from different parts of the world. The module will conclude with discussion of different theories of myth and the influence of certain mythical stories or collections of myth on contemporary children's literature.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

North American Children's Literature

Code:

ENMCHN

Convenor:

DR Sue Walsh

Summary:

This module aims to raise questions about the 'Americanness' of 'American children's literature' through the reading of a wide range of texts labelled 'American children's literature': what constitutes national and cultural identity? How do critics define this, and how do they relate it to the reading of texts, or to notions of 'literary history' or genre? How are ideas of 'society', 'culture', or 'history' used in criticism to produce ideas of identity and 'read' texts as relevant to such identities?

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

X

Module details


Title:

Popular Forms of Children's Fiction

Code:

ENMCHP

Convenor:

DR Neil Cocks

Summary:

This module aims to examine texts that may, in a variety of ways, be seen as 'popular'. This will include books published in series (Goosebumps, Babysitters); books marketed by genre (Point Horror); comics, magazines and media. Through these texts, important questions of critical approach will be raised. These will include questions of value and hierarchy, the construction of 'authors' and authority, notions of originality and repetition, ideas of the 'contemporary'. Above all, the very idea of the 'popular' will be carefully considered. How does it function in existing critical languages? Is it thought of a part of, or as apart from, children's literature? Where would one place Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl? Disputed cases such as these will help to mark out the frontiers of debate. This suggested outline may be modified to take into account specific interests of the students.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Code Module Convenor
ENMCHCW Commonwealth Children’s Literature (Colonial and Post-colonial writing) DR Sue Walsh
ENMCHF Children's Film, Television, and Radio DR Neil Cocks
ENMCHM Myth and Folktale in Children's Literature PROF Karin Lesnik-Oberstein
ENMCHN North American Children's Literature DR Sue Walsh
ENMCHP Popular Forms of Children's Fiction DR Neil Cocks

These are the modules that we currently offer. They may change for your year of study as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £10,500

New international students: £21,350

Tuition fee information

The fees listed are for full-time study, unless otherwise stated. Fee information will be confirmed in offer letters sent out to successful applicants. You can find further information, including information for part-time study, through our dedicated fees and funding page.

EU student fees

With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

Graduates of our MRes in Children's Literature continue on to, or return to, careers in teaching, publishing, the media, the civil service, the charity sector and advertising, as well as going on to do PhD research. Students report that their careers are supported by the skills they have acquired, not only in terms of subject expertise, but also critical thinking, advanced understanding and writing.

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