EN2C2-30 The English Nineteenth-Century Novel
Introductory description
EN2C2-30 The English Nineteenth-Century Novel
Module aims
This module aims to explore the rise of the novel as both a genre and a concept, and the ways in which it developed in the particular context of nineteenth-century Britain, responding to rapid social change and the corresponding shifting understandings of class, gender, sexuality, nation and culture. We shall consider how nineteenth-century readers and critics taxonomised the novel, and how they invested heavily in what they thought its purpose and formula should be. So too, we will consider the C19th novel outside its historical context, as subject to multiplicitous readings, defamiliarising the novel through critical lenses. The module traverses a range of various styles such as "social realism", "the bildungsroman", “sensationalism”, “historical novel”, “fantasy” and cover topics such as masculinity, the new woman, sexuality, childhood, landscapes, Empire, dialogues between image and text, evolution, and illness. Texts from the popular to the literary, from the canonical to those often overlooked post-1900, are explored. Writers may include Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Lewis Carroll, Charlotte Brontë, H. Rider Haggard, and William Thackeray.
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.
Indicative and subject to change.
Term One
WEEK ONE
Literature and The Novel in C19th Thought: Part 1
WEEK TWO
First Instalment of serialised text
Gérard Genette, "Introduction" from Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. No. 20. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Rob Allen, ""Pause You Who Read This": Disruption and the Victorian Serial Novel." Serialization in Popular Culture (ed. Rob Allen and Thijs van den Berg). Routledge, 2014. 45-58.
Emily Steinlight, "" Anti-Bleak House": Advertising and the Victorian novel." Narrative 14.2 (2006): 132-162.
Peter Wagner, "The Nineteenth-century Illustrated Novel" Handbook of Intermediality, edited by Gabriele Rippl. De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 378-400.
WEEK THREE
2nd Serial Instalment
Maria Edgeworth Belinda (1801), vol. i (chapters I-XII) and paratexts outlined in Reading Guidance
WEEK FOUR
next Serial Instalment
Maria Edgeworth Belinda (1801), vol. ii and iii (chapters XIII "Sortes Virgilianae" to the end) and the "Original Sketch" - see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Edward Said, i. Narrative and Social Space and ii. Jane Austen and Empire from Culture and Imperialism (1993)
WEEK FIVE
Next Serial Instalment
Walter Scott Ivanhoe (1819/1830) vol.i (chs. I-XXIII) and Paratexts as outlined in Reading Guidance
READING WEEK
WEEK SEVEN
Serial Instalment
Walter Scott Ivanhoe (1819/1830) vol.ii (chs. XXIV-End)
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Introduction from Heidi Kaufman, English Origins, Jewish Discourse, and the Nineteenth-century British Novel: Reflections on a Nested Nation. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009. pp.1-26.
WEEK EIGHT
Serial Instalment
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848), vol.i (ch.I-XVII) - ensure to read the prefaces/epigraphs etc. See Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: This selection of Gaskell's letters, reviews of the book, contemporary context, illustrations.
WEEK NINE
Serial Instalment
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton A Tale of Manchester Life (1848), vol.ii (ch.XVIII-End)
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Caroline Levine, “Victorian Realism.” The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel, edited by Deirdre David, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 84–106.
WEEK TEN
Serial Instalment
Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) vol. i (chs. I-XV) and Charlotte's letter (appendix A) - see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate extract from Athena Vrettos' introduction to Somatic Fictions: Imagining illness in Victorian culture. Stanford University Press, 1995.
Term 2
Week One
Serial Instalment
And paratexts on either archive.org [back to front] or UVic
Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) vol.ii and iii [chapter XVI- End] and appendices in Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "The Character in the Veil: Imagery of the Surface in the Gothic Novel." PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 96.2 (1981): 255-270.
Week Two
Serial Instalment
Charles Kingsley, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863) - see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate extracts from Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859)
Week Three
Serial Instalment
Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) Vol.I [Preface and Ch. I-XXX] - see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Hardy “The Dorset Farmer Labourer” (1884)
Week Four
Serial Instalment
Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) Vol.II [XXXI “Blame-Fury” - End]
Week Five
Serial Instalment
H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure (1887) -see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate extracts from Rebecca Stott, "Scaping the body: Of cannibal mothers and colonial landscapes." The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2002. 150-166.
READING WEEK
Week Seven
Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.14, June, 1850
George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891) [chapters I-XX, c.240pp] - see Reading Guidance
Required Critical Reading: George Gissing, “The Place of Realism in Fiction” (1895) plus brief quote on Dickens.
Week Eight
Serial Instalment
George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891) [chapters XXI – End]
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Mona Caird, extract from “Marriage” (1888)
Week Nine
Serial Instalment
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898) c.160pp. See Reading Guidance.
Required Critical Reading: Read/annotate Wells' essay "On Extinction" (1893) and Herbert Fyfe's essay "How Will the World End?" (1900)
Week Ten
Final serial Instalments
Literature and The Novel in C19th Thought: Part 2
Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Brian Cheadle, "What is David Copperfield?." Essays in Criticism 69.1 (2019): 51-73.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of prose-fiction in the context of its nineteenth-century historical, cultural, social, political, economic, religious, scientific and aesthetic context;
- Demonstrate close-reading skills, skills in critical analysis, and the ability to take responsibility for individual reading and learning;
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of nineteenth century literary-works and their differing styles;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between nineteenth-century authors, readers, and critics, and how they helped shape ideas of the purpose and characteristics of the “English novel”.
- Demonstrate an understanding of some of the main critical lenses through which the core texts may be read (i.e. material cultures, postcolonialism, new historicism, feminism, structuralism);
- To develop written communication skills focused on theoretical and literary material, and the ability to effectively communicate information and arguments.
Indicative reading list
View reading list on Talis Aspire
Subject specific skills
No subject specific skills defined for this module.
Transferable skills
No transferable skills defined for this module.
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 5 sessions of 1 hour (2%) |
| Seminars | 18 sessions of 2 hours (12%) |
| Private study | 259 hours (86%) |
| Total | 300 hours |
Private study description
Reading & research
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A2
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1x 3000 word essay | 35% | Yes (extension) | |
| 1 X 3500 word essay | 50% | Yes (extension) | |
| Critical Reflection (1500 words) | 15% | Yes (extension) | |
|
A critical reflection on a specified aspect of the module, such as the process of reading or researching, or engagement with the wider discipline through attending external academic events, for example. |
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Feedback on assessment
Written feedback on assignments which will offer at least 3 suggestions for improvement and detail how their work corresponded with the marking criteria.
Optional individual meetings or email correspondence with students to discuss in more detail the specificities of the written feedback.
Courses
This module is Core optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-Q300 Undergraduate English Literature
- Year 2 of UENA-QP36 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing
This module is Optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-Q300 Undergraduate English Literature
- Year 2 of UENA-QP36 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 2 of UTHA-QW34 Undergraduate English and Theatre Studies
- Year 2 of UFIA-QW25 Undergraduate Film and Literature
This module is Option list C for:
- Year 2 of UCXA-QQ37 Undergraduate Classics and English
This module is Option list D for:
- Year 2 of UPHA-VQ72 Undergraduate Philosophy and Literature