EN2RR-The Eighteenth Century: Restoration to Romantics

Module Provider: English
Number of credits: 20 [10ECTS credits]
Level: 5
Terms in which taught: Autumn
Module Convenor: Dr TM Woodman
Pre-requisites: EN1LL EN1RS EN1WKT
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Module version for: 2009/0

Email: t.m.woodman@reading.ac.uk

Aims:
The aim of this module is to develop students' knowledge and critical understanding of the characteristics of Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, with particular reference to the satire of the period and the emergence of the novel as a genre.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to:
• recognise and analyse the distinctive features of the texts selected for study
• demonstrate some awareness of how the literature interacted with social, historical and cultural developments of its era
• make thematic comparisons and cross-reference between the texts
• engage critically with the ideas presented in lectures, seminars, or secondary materials
• organize 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 focuses on two of the most distinctive forms of literary expression in the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the powerful satire of the period, and the development of the major new genre of the novel. Topics to be discussed include gender issues in the period, attitudes to crime, colonialism and the growth of commercial society, and such motifs as real and symbolic journeys. The module consists of the following texts: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels; John Gay, The Beggar's Opera; Defoe, Moll Flanders; Alexander Pope, 'Eloisa to Abelard', and 'Epistle to a Lady'; Samuel Johnson, Rasselas and 'The Vainity of Human Wishes' and Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. The majority of these are in The Norton Anthology Volume I.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
A mixture of lectures and seminars, with one essay tutorial. Students will be expected to do preparatory reading for seminars, and may be required to introduce discussion through individual presentations.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures	9		1
Tutorials/seminars	9.5
Practicals
Other contact (eg study visits)
Total hours	18.5		1
Number of essays or assignments	2
Other (eg major seminar paper)

Assessment:
Coursework
Students write one non-assessed essay of approximately 1500 words, and 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 2 answers. The examination carries 67% of the overall mark for the module.

Requirements for a pass
An average 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.

Last updated: 7 December 2009