Children's Literature
Birkbeck offers an interdisciplinary look at children's literature and writing, allowing students the chance to study children’s literature and its contexts and the option to create texts and learn how the practice of children's literature is situated in professional contexts.
Birkbeck staff
- Julia Bell is the author of two novels – Massive (Young Picador, 2002) and Dirty Work (Young Picador, 2007). She is also the co-editor of the bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan 2001), and a number of short fiction anthologies. She is also the founder and project coordinator of Birkbeck’s annual literary magazine – The Mechanics’ Institute Review. Her work reflects an interest in feminist readings of culture, the problems and paradoxes of British regional identity and the need to invigorate and champion independent publishing in an age of globalized media.
- Jessamy Harvey lectures in Modern Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies, with a special focus on childhood and youth. Her research focuses mainly on the Francoist period, but certain topics lead her to explore the construction of childhood in earlier and later historical periods.
- Michael Rosen: Micahel is a broadcaster, children’s novelist, poet and performer. He gained his M.A. in Children's Literature from the University of Reading, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of North London, and is the author of 140 books. He was appointed as the fifth Children’s Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held this honour till 2009. He is currently Visiting Professor of Children's Literature at Birkbeck and has devised this Master’s degree.
- Karen Wells is Programme Director for International Childhood Studies and Lecturer in International Development. She has a BA (Hons) African History and Religious Studies from SOAS, University of London, an Msc Comparative Government and a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics. She is the author of Childhood in a Global Perspective (Polity, 2009) and has published widely on children and visual culture. She is currently using visual methods and oral narratives in research with young refugees.
Student essays (receiving a distinction)
- Liminality in the Works for Children of J.M. Barrie and Kenneth Grahame (Matthew Weait)
- How does children's literature challenge the sexual boundaries of the adult world? (David Kelly)
- Ideology and agency in the authorship of adolescent fiction: a reflexive view (Aaron Cox)
- Discuss how adaptations of children's books by mass media organisations can result in heterodox ideas being eroded with reference to The Hundred and One Dalmatians. (Nancy Campbell)
- Is the rural utopia in A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories an escapist apologia or subversive satire of the ideology of post-Victorian England and the British Empire? (Jeremy Latham)
- Does Children’s Literature know how to deal with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll? A reader response to Melvin Burgess’ Junk (Gareth Brennan)
Student dissertations
- 'More Sex, Please - We Are Post-Millenial British Teen Fiction Readers! An analysis of the representation of sexuality in differing genres of popular teen fiction and the significance of gender response to them', Jeremy Latham (69)
- 'Heterotopia and the Spaces of Ideology', Barney Samson (69)
Relevant courses
- BA English Literature
- MA Children's Literature
- MA Modern and Contemporary Literature
- MPhil/PhD degrees
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