Course module - Writing the 18th Century
Code : ENGL20041 Credit rating: 20 Semester : 1
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Aims |
Objectives |
Assessment |
Information
|
Course Content |
Course Materials |
Tutors |
Timetable |
Teaching Methods |
Keywords
Aims
- To encourage the use of a range of theoretical and critical approaches in the close reading of poetry and prose.
- To make students aware of different literary genres, and the main lines of development of poetry and fiction in the period.
- To enable students to situate literary texts within their historical, social, political and cultural contexts.
- To examine the relation between literary discourse and ideology in the period.
- To explore the relations between high and low cultural forms in eighteenth-century Britain.
- To stir an interest in 18th-century literature and culture.
Objectives (Learning Outcomes)
By the end of the course, students should demonstrate:
- A detailed and convincing knowledge of a wide range of texts, and the ability to give close readings of them.
- An ability to think through different critical and theoretical approaches to reading texts, and the acquisition of a critical vocabulary.
- An awareness of the relations between texts and the historical moments of their production and reception.
- Skills in written expression and the organisation of a coherent argument appropriate to work that will contribute to the final degree classification.
Assessment
One presentation with handout (20%); one 2,500-word essay (40%); one 2-hour unseen written examination (40%)
The use of dictionaries in the examination is prohibited. This rule applies to all categories of students, including all Visiting Students.
Information
THIS COURSE IS NOT AVAILABLE AS FREE CHOICE.
Course Content
This course is intended to introduce students to the major writers and works of Restoration and eighteenth-century Britain. We will focus on a selection of verse and prose works written between 1660 and 1798, exploring some of the many different genres, techniques, and styles used by Restoration and eighteenth-century writers. At the same time, we will link our analyses of specific texts with the cultural contexts in which those texts were produced. We will examine a wide range of issues arising from the social, political, and economic developments of the period, including the challenges posed by increasing industrialization and urbanization, the formation of anti-slavery, women’s rights, and animal rights movements, the rise of a leisure readership and/or a “middle class,” the power of capitalist values and consumer culture, and the development of modern attitudes to gender and sexuality.
Course Materials
Tutor(s)
Gallagher, Dr Noelle
Timetable
PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE FOR 2012-2013
Lecture: Tuesday 2.00-3.00 and Thursday, 2.00-3.00*
Seminars: T B A
*Students attend BOTH lectures.
Teaching Methods
Two 1-hour lectures, plus one 1-hour seminar per week.
Preliminary reading
Readings vary from year to year, but students are encouraged to begin some of the lengthier readings in advance of the first lecture. Further details of the course texts for 2012-13 will be placed on the Preparatory Reading List pages of the EAS area of the SAHC student intranet.