This module introduces the history of children's adventure stories, and explores the emergence of the multi-novel "Young Adult" genre that dominates bookshelves and literary conventions today. The module begins with the 18th century morality tale, and moves through the Victorian period of classic Children's literature, to culminate in a study of Lewis and Tolkien as founders of the modern form. The module will explore how young readerships are constructed over time, and examine trends in adventure writing for young readers. The questions "what is an adventure?" And "what is special about young audiences?" will be addressed throughout the term. In addition to thinking about the emergence of young adult literature as a genre in its own right, this module will examine the construction of narrative and voice in each text, as a means of examining the process of world-building in literary fiction.

This first-year module will inspire you to build a meaningful philosophy of life. As an interdisciplinary module within the fields of Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Studies, Childhood Studies, therapeutic and clinical practice, Happiness Studies, the Sociology of Health and Medical Humanities, it will enable you to reflect on what we think we need to be happy and what a good and meaningful life entails for individuals and societies. You will also be encouraged to explore how small changes in our ways of thinking may help us to live better lives. A key question for this module is how we can find space for happiness, wellness, and mindfulness in a globalised world shaped by climate crises, war and violence, pandemics, oppression and inequality and the biopolitical organisation of our lives. Through reflective activities and class discussions you will be encouraged to use theoretical ideas to research your own lives, your established ways of thinking and your current perspective on life. As such, the module will motivate you to invest in developing an individual philosophy of life, and reflect on how a pragmatic and realistically optimistic outlook for life can be pursued, both at an individual, as well as a social level.

The aim of this module is to enhance your psychodynamic thinking and practice in specialist areas. You will develop your knowledge of the psychodynamic field and become more familiar with interventions in specialist areas, with the aim of developing further understanding of and the application of the transference and countertransference phenomena. The module emphasises skills in critical analysis.

This module explored a wide range of children’s fiction, both written for children and about children. You read and analyse popular children’s literature from ‘Where the Wild Things are’ to ‘Matilda’. You will build your knowledge of how the perceptions of childhood have changed over the last century and the types of ideals being projected onto the world of children through literature.