Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier

EN31730

Module Title

Victorian Childhoods

Academic Year

2014/2015

Co-ordinator

Dr Beth Julia Rodgers

Semester

Semester 1

Other Staff

Dr Beth Julia Rodgers

Course Delivery

Delivery Type	Delivery length / details
Seminars / Tutorials	1 X 2hr Seminars each week: Seminars will open with a group presentation, ensuring that initial discussion is student-led.
Practical	5 additional sessions for viewing of a film/tv adaptation of certain texts, followed by a group discussion / or group trips to local museums. A group trip to either the Ceredigion Museum to view examples of the material culture of Victorian childhood or to the Thomas Parry library to view the Horton collection of children's books.

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	1 x 3000 word coursework essays	50%
Semester Assessment	1 x 3000 word coursework essay	50%
Supplementary Assessment	Resit Assessment Resit or resubmit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the generic, historical, commercial and cultural contexts that shaped the texts studied on the module.

2. Engage with theoretical and critical debates (both of the time and of more recent scholars) on the construction of childhood in the Victorian period.

3. Produce critical work that engages in close textual analysis, employs relevant critical approaches, and makes reference to contemporary contexts and sources.

4. Demonstrate enhanced skills of independent thought and research, of working as part of a group, and of oral presentation

Aims

Week 1:
Seminar: Introduction: Constructing the Child, Constructing the Victorians: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 'The Cry of the Children' (1842) and a selection of other sources
Workshop: Introduction II: Victorian childhood and visual culture

Week 2:
Seminar: Mid-Victorian Boyhood: Time for School: Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857)
Viewing: Documentary viewing and discussion: The Children who Built Victorian Britain (BBC Four, 2011)

Week 3:
Seminar: Mid-Victorian Girlhood and the Bildungsroman: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Worshop: The Mill on the Floss: close reading workshop

Week 4:
Seminar: The Evolutionary Child: Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (1862-3)
Workshop: Essay skills session

Week 5:
Seminar: Fantasy and Coming of Age 1: Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Viewing: Adapting Alice - viewing and discussion

Week 6:
Seminar: Fantasy and Coming of Age 2: Victorian fairy tales - a selection (George MacDonald, 'The Day Boy and the Night Girl' (1882), Charles Dickens, 'The Magic Fishbone' (1867); Juliana Horatia Ewing, 'Amelia and the Dwarfs' (1870); Christina Rossetti, 'Speaking Likenesses' (1874))
Fieldtrip: Victorian childhood and material culture (location to be arranged)

Week 7:
Seminar: Empire Boys and Girls?: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883); extracts from the Girl's Own Paper
Workshop: Working with periodicals and ndewspaper online databases - the Girl's Own Paper and the Boy's Own Paper

Week 8:
Seminar: Questions of readership: Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and The House of Pomegranates and Other Stories (1891)
Workshop: Writing Skills

Week 9:
Seminar: Seen and Not Heard? The Child at the Fin de Siecle: Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897)
Viewing: Film viewing of What Maisie Knew (2012) followed by discussion.

Week 10: Module conclusions and essay consultation

ESTIMATED WORKLOAD HOURS:
Contact time - 40 hours
Primary reading - 125 hours
Supplementary reading - 90 hours
Essay writing - 50 hours
Team presentation - 5 hours

Brief description

Content

Module Skills

Skills Type	Skills details
Application of Number	N/A
Communication	Written communication in the form of essays, Oral communication in seminar discussion and group presentations
Improving own Learning and Performance	Developing own research skills, management of time, expression and use of language.
Information Technology	Use of electronic resources (JSTOR, websites); use of databases of digitized newspapers and periodicals; the production of written work.
Personal Development and Career planning	by critical reflection and the development of transferable communication skills.
Problem solving	Formulating and developing extended arguments
Research skills	Relating literary texts to historical contexts and theoretical commentaries, and by synthesizing various perspectives in an evaluative argument.
Subject Specific Skills	Detailed critical and contextual analysis of literary texts and evaluation of theoretical concepts.
Team work	Through group presentations in seminars – this will involve preparation outside of class and team work within the seminar.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6