EN2NCN: The Nineteenth Century Novel

Module Provider:

English

Number of credits:

20 [10 ECTS credits]

Level:

I (Intermediate)

Terms in which taught:

Autumn

Module Convenor:

Dr AP Nash

Pre-requisites:

EN1LL EN1RS EN1WKT

Co-requisites:

Modules excluded:

Module version for:

2007/8

Aims:
This module is designed to provide knowledge and understanding of nineteenth-century British fiction, through the study of representative texts. The aims are to enable students to develop a critical understanding of particular contemporary cultural and socio-political issues in an era of change, and to obtain a corresponding insight into how these interact with formal developments in the fiction of the period.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to:
• identify and analyse some of the distinctive concerns, formal characteristics, and narrative strategies of the selected texts
• demonstrate an awareness of interactions between the texts and their cultural and socio-political contexts
• discuss and appraise a range of critical perspectives on the fiction of the period
• organise and articulate a coherent written argument, both in coursework essays and under timed examination conditions.

Additional outcomes:
Students will be encouraged to develop skills of oral communication and effective participation in group work. They will also enhance their IT competence through the use of relevant web resources and databases and the word-processing of assessed work.

Outline content:
The module will promote consideration, in selected novels, of a range of issues such as the presentation of urban and rural life, the debate on women’s place in society, and controversies over religion. Discussion will also be informed by attention to narrative concerns, such as the development of form and genre; the textual construction of class and gender; the interplay between realism and romance, and symbolism and sensationalism; and reader response and interpretation. Texts chosen for study may include: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White, George Eliot: Middlemarch, James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
A series of lectures covers the four core texts in detail, and explores a number of key themes with reference to the set texts. The lectures are supplemented by seminar discussion and individual tutorial feedback on coursework.

Contact hours:

Assessment:
Coursework
Students write one non-assessed piece of coursework, of approximately 1500 words. They also submit a second essay, of no more than 2000 words, for formal assessment.

Relative percentage of coursework
Assessed essay 33%.

Penalties for late submission
Ten marks (out of 100 on the normal University scale) will be deducted from a piece of work submitted up to one calendar week after the original deadline or any formally agreed extension of that deadline. Once this period has elapsed, a mark of zero will be recorded.

Examinations
A two-hour paper requiring two answers. The examination carries 67% of the overall mark for the module.

Requirements for a pass
A mark of 40%.

Reassessment arrangements
Re-examination in September. Coursework will be carried forward if it bears a confirmed mark of 40% or more. Otherwise it must be resubmitted by 1 September.