EN3DD-Decadence and Degeneration: Literature of the 1880s and 1890s

Module Provider: English
Number of credits: 20 [10ECTS credits]
Level: H (Honours)
Terms in which taught: Autumn
Module Convenor: Dr LV Bending
Pre-requisites: Part 1 English
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Module version for: 2008/9

Email: l.v.bending@reading.ac.uk

Aims:
This module aims to provide students with an informed critical understanding of some of the key literary texts-and some of the cultural debates they both emerged from and generated-in the late nineteenth century.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module students will be expected to:
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the cultural debates of the 1880s and 1890s
• show an ability to use these debates to inform close critical analysis of the selected texts
• understand the implications of different literary forms for reading
• engage critically with ideas presented in seminars and secondary materials
• research, organize and articulate a scholarly critical argument in writing

Additional outcomes:
Transferable Skills
Each module is designed to encourage you to develop skills of oral communication and effective participation in group work. Additionally, you will be encouraged to enhance your IT competence through the use of relevant web resources and library databases, and through the word-processing of assessed coursework.

Outline content:
The module examines some of the emergent figures in the literature of the Fin de Siècle: the vampire, the New Woman, the homosexual, and the criminal. Against the backdrop of the Oscar Wilde trial and the Jack the Ripper murders, contemporary anxieties about criminality, sexuality, the empire, and eugenics will be explored through study of a representative selection of fiction, drama and poetry, drawn from the work of some lesser-known authors (such as Ernest Dowson, Marie Muriel Davie, Michael Field) as well as a range of landmark texts: R. L. Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
There will be 9 meetings of two hours per week. The exact method of teaching will vary from seminar to seminar, but most modules are taught largely through two hour seminars involving group discussion. Some modules may include occasional lectures. You may be asked to give brief seminar papers or oral reports. You are entitled to half an hour of tutorial feedback on your non assessed essay.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures
Tutorials/seminars		18.5
Practicals
Other contact (eg study visits)
Total hours		18.5
Number of essays or assignments		2
Other (eg major seminar paper)

Assessment:
Coursework
You will be asked to write one non-assessed piece of coursework of 1,500 words and to submit one or two assessed pieces of coursework up to a maximum of 2,500 words.

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
There will be a two-hour examination paper.

Each component will account for 50% of the mark of the module.

Requirement for a pass: an average 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.