Multicultural & Global Literature - YorkCourse - ENG00062I

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Module summary

This module traces the rise and fall of Britain as the arbitrator of world politics and its displacement by the United States of America. Drawing on texts from children’s literature and popular culture, the course divides into the two parts ‘Children of the Empire’ and ‘Children of the Bomb’.

The first part looks at works exploring the relationship between Britain and India and the imagination of an idealised England in the years leading up to the First World War. The second part starts after the Second World War and examines the attempts of Britain to adjust to life in a nuclear age dominated by the paradoxes of American power, when inhabitants of the former empire come to Britain to look for a new life. Set against a reggae soundtrack, the module examines the conflict between the views from above and below, the colonisers and the colonised, children and adults.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

• Literary: to use a mixture of close reading and plot analysis to explore the different styles of writing for children and adolescents before World War I and after World War II.
• Historical/political: to examine the displacement of Britain as the leading Western world power by America.
• Sociological: to explore the paradoxical idealisations of childhood and the concepts of meaning and duty in periods dominated first by Imperialism and then by the Cold War.
• Cultural: to experience how the movements of the time are reflected by the ‘high’ and ‘low’ art of the time.

Module learning outcomes

• To acquire knowledge of the major styles and trends of child/adolescent literature before World War I and after World War II.
• To appreciate the cultural reaction to the increasing insecurities of the twentieth century.
• To understand some of the major social shifts that occurred since 1910.
• To realise how the literature of childhood reflects the fears and hopes of the twentieth century.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive feedback on their work during the semester in the form of tutorials.

Indicative reading

• Nesbit: The Story of the Amulet
• Grahame: Wind in the Willows
• Salinger: Catcher in the Rye
• Greene: The Quiet American