Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Module ContentThe first section of this module introduces students to films for children, and considers the differences between how a film tells a story and
other more traditional forms and genres; it also explores issues related to production and the relationship between the cinema and the
market place. Audio-visual material will be used. The second section of the module looks at picturebooks and graphic novels from within the
English-speaking world and elsewhere. How the picturebook, the comic book and the graphic novel intersect and influence each other, and
how national and international trends are part of this will be considered. The purpose of this module is to develop students’ understanding of
the language and conventions of polysemic film and print narratives. In this module students develop knowledge and skills in how to discuss
polysemic narratives and become familiar with key visual texts. Students will participate in the following learning activities: close
examination of a range of visual narratives.Secondary ReadingPicturebooks
Beckett, Sandra. Crossover Picturebooks. London: Routledge, 2012.
Beckett, Sandra. ‘Picturebooks that Transcend Boundaries’. In Valerie Coghlan and Keith O’Sullivan, eds. Irish Children’s Literature and Culture: New Perspectives on Contemporary Writing. London: Routledge, 2011.
Colomar, T. et al, eds. New Directions in Picturebook Research. London, Routledge, 2010.
Graham, J. “Reading contemporary picturebooks” in K. Reynolds, K. (Ed.) Modern children’s literature, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp.209-226.
Lewis, David. Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.
Nikolajeva, Maria and Scott, Carole. How Picturebooks Work. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 2001.
Nodelman, P. “Decoding the images: Illustration and picture books”, in P.Hunt (Ed.) Understanding children’s literature, London: Routledge, 1999, pp.69-80.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins, 1993 or later editions).
Pictiúr: Contemporary Children’s Book Illustrators from Ireland. Children’s Books Ireland, 2013
Salisbury, Martin and Morag Styles. Children’s Picturebooks. The Art of Visual Storytelling. London: Lawrence King, 2012 and 2nd ed. 2020.
Sipe, L.R. and Sylvia Pantaleo, eds. Postmodern Picturebook: Play, Parody and Self-Referentiality. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
Whalley, J.I., and T. R. Chester. A History of Children’s Book Illustration. John Murray, 1988.
• www.picturingbooks.com
Film
Andrews, Wojik, Children’s Films: History, Ideology ,Pedagogy, Theory. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.
Easthope, Antony, Contemporary film theory. London; New York: Longman, 1993
Gordon, Andrew. "E.T." as Fairy Tale ("E.T." comme conte de fée), Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1983, pp. 298-305
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4239568
Griswold, Jerry. “There’s No Place but Home: The Wizard of Oz”, The Antioch Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, The Romance of Toughness, 1987, pp. 462-475
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4611799
Hedges, Ines. “Scripting Children’s Minds E.T. and The Wizard of Oz”, Breaking the Frame: Film Language and the experience of Limits. Bloomington and Indeanapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999, pp. 109-121.
Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: the art, technology, language, history, and theory of film and media. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981 |
