REQUIRED READING:

Stephens, John and Robyn McCallum, Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature, New York and London: Routledge, 1998. *The hardcopy edition of this book is extremely expensive. Routledge are releasing a paperback edition for $39.95 on February 27, 2013 and students will need to purchase a copy directly from the Routledge website: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415836142/ Photocopied excerpts from this book will be provided for the first few weeks, to make up for the fact that delivery might take some time.

Primary Texts:

1. Cadnum, Michael. (Cadnum is the author of two retellings of Robin Hood: In a Dark Wood AND Forbidden Forest. Both are out of print, but copies are still available from Amazon and online booksellers.)
2. Gaiman, Neil. Odd and the Frost Giants. London: Bloomsbury, 2008.
3. Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West. New York: Harper Collins, 1995.
4. Pinkwater, Daniel. The Yggyssey.: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

Additional Primary texts:

A bundle of primary texts is listed for each of the twelve sessions. You are not expected to obtain or read all of them, and we don’t expect that all will be discussed in seminars. Core primary texts will be provided in a document available on the LIT 846 iLearn site.  As is the way with children’s books, not all the texts listed in the LIT 846 Weekly Guide are readily available, so do use your municipal/school library where possible. You are welcome to introduce other relevant readings, and to write about these in your presentation and final essay. The one topic for which no readings have been provided is “Stories of Robin Hood”. Please view the list of recommended texts and see if you can locate at least one. Otherwise you might want to watch the Disney animated film of Robin Hood, or episodes from the 2006 BBC TV series.

UNIT WEBPAGE AND TECHNOLOGY USED AND REQUIRED

This unit can be accessed at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au PC and Internet access are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement.

Please consult teaching staff for any further, more specific requirements.

Changes to this unit from when it was last taught in 2011:

• Addition of new text and new topic for the Week 12 session (Neil Gaiman's Odd and The Frost Giants.)
• Session previously titled "Medievalism 3" deleted.

To complete LIT 846 students must:

• Attend and participate in seminars (if internal)
• Participate in online discussions by making at least 8 posts over the duration of the teaching period (if external)
• Complete all prescribed assessment tasks
• Reach a satisfactory level of achievement in the prescribed assessment tasks.

*Absence from more than two seminars without written explanation (medical or counselling certificate) will disqualify a student from passing the unit. University regulations also stipulate that a student must attempt every part of assessment in order to be eligible to pass a unit of study.

Notes on Participation for External Students: External students must participate in online discussions via the LIT 846 iLearn site. External students should read the weekly texts and prepare the seminar discussion topics in advance, then post responses to the seminar questions and respond to the posts of other students, to facilitate an active discussion such as would occur in a face-to-face seminar. Students are also encouraged to raise other relevant points of interest in their online discussions. Be prepared to question the opinions of others, to have your opinions challenged and to participate actively in discussion. Students are expected to make at least 8 posts* over the semester. Please make sure that your postings do not exceed 500 words, as it is harder for others to respond to postings that are excessively long and detailed.