Children's literature is recognised as a remarkable and dynamic part of literary and social culture. This course, the first full-time one year taught Masters programme in an Irish university, offers graduates in English or related disciplines the opportunity to study a broad range of children's literature in English. It addresses chronologies, genres, modes of criticism, publishing trends and the full apparatus of literary investigation across four centuries, while addressing the unique power dynamics that arise from adult authors writing for child readers. It is particularly concerned with multidisciplinary study because of the unique integration of words and images through the medium of picture books and graphic novels, and because its readership is more likely than any other to be 'technological natives' to have grown up taking multimedia approaches to texts for granted. Complete in itself, the course may also serve as preparation for those intending to proceed to further research in the field. Unique opportunities exist to work with the Pollard Collection, the bequest of more than 10,000 children's books left to the College by Mary 'Paul' Pollard, one time keeper of Early Printed Books, in 2005 as well as to work with the National Collection of Children's Books (nccb.tcd.ie).
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