Introductory description

N/A

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

SYLLABUS

Term One
Week 1: Introduction
SATIRE
Week 2: Gay, The Beggar's Opera
Week 3: Pope, "The Rape of the Lock" and “Epistle to a Lady”; Swift, “The Lady’s Dressing Room”; Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S— to write a Poem called the Lady’s Dressing Room”
Week 4: Swift, Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal
Week 5: Visual satire: Hogarth, A Harlot's Progress and Four Times of the Day (plus article on Hogarth's Progress)
Week 6: Reading Week
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
Week 7: Richardson, Pamela
Week 8: Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Week 9: Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol 1-4
Week 10: Inchbald, A Simple Story
Term 2
SPACE AND LANDSCAPE
Week 2: Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife; Addison and Steele, selections from The Spectator
Week 3: Thomson, The Seasons (“Spring”); Duck, The Thresher’s Labour; Collier, The Woman’s Labour
Week 4: Johnson, Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Week 5: Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”; Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village”; Crabbe, “The Village”
Week 6: Reading Week
OBJECTS AND MATERIALS
Week 7: Adventures of a Robinson Crusoe; Dixon, “From a Gilt Paper to Cloe” (will hand out in class); Adventures of a Silk Petticoat and Adventures of a Black Coat.
Week 8: Lowlife, or, One Half of the World Knows Not How the Other Half Lives
Week 9: Thomas Turner diary extracts
Week 10: Austen, Emma

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of key writers of eighteenthcentury British literature, and write and talk in a well informed way about generic developments (e.g. The rise of the novel), literary cross-fertilisations (e.g. classical influences) and cultural modes of expression (e.g. sensibility) inherent in many of the key texts
• Work individually and as a member of a small group to generate collaborative understandings of texts. Use a wide range of secondary, reference and electronic resources to further individual research. Develop and apply cumulative knowledge in order to make meaningful connections between themes and texts
• Demonstrate the ability to analyse and critically examine a broad spectrum of texts. Demonstrate the ability to apply general information (about generic developments, historical background etc) in ways which meaningfully illuminate literary reading. Demonstrate time management and organisational skills (essential for coping with longer fiction).
• Display an advanced understanding of eighteenth-century literature – its characteristic modes of writing and representation. Link the knowledge gained about this literature to knowledge of earlier and later periods gained in previously taken modules. Display a capacity to make evaluative critical judgements about unfamiliar literature which are also historically and critically informed.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Subject specific skills

-Discuss debates current to the area of eighteenth-century literary studies
-Demonstrate a coherent and detailed knowledge of key writers of eighteenth-century British literature
-Demonstrate conceptual understanding by describing and commenting, in a well informed way, on generic developments (e.g. The rise of the novel), literary cross-fertilisations (e.g. classical influences) and cultural modes of expression (e.g. sensibility) inherent in many of the key texts.

Transferable skills

-Work individually and as a member of a small group to generate collaborative understandings of texts informed by recent scholarship
-Use a wide range of secondary, reference and electronic resources to further individual research.
-Develop and apply cumulative knowledge in order to make meaningful connections between themes and texts.
-Demonstrate the ability to analyse and critically examine a broad spectrum of primary and secondary texts.
-Demonstrate the ability to apply complex information (about generic developments, historical background etc) in ways which meaningfully illuminate literary reading.
-Demonstrate time management and organisational skills (essential for coping with longer fiction).
-Display a systematic understanding of eighteenth-century literature – its characteristic modes of writing and representation.
-Link the knowledge gained about this literature to knowledge of earlier and later periods gained in previously taken modules.
-Display a capacity to make evaluative critical judgements about unfamiliar literature which are also historically and critically informed.
-Describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline