This course will to introduce students to Nineteenth-Century Literature and its cultural, social, literary and historical contexts. The Victorian period was typified by great change (in many formats), and this course will map and examine these transformations in three novels. Special attention will be paid to genre and forms of production (including the realist and sensation novel), identity, representation, race, gender, and social class. We will also consider notions of crime and deviance. Students will be expected to engage in close reading and employ critical and theoretical approaches.

• Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a range of novels and the historical, literary, and

  By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able to:
   

• Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a range of novels and the historical, literary, and cultural contexts of the Victorian period;
• Draw comparisons and connections between the set texts and to articulate these through critical analysis and close reading skills

Intellectual Skills:
 

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able to:
 

• Appraise and assess a range of novels;
• Reach conclusions about the issues raised in the course, and base these conclusions on sound reasoning.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:
 

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able to:
 

• Develop their own views and argue consistent positions about the issues raised in the course;
• Search for sources of information online and in the library.
• cultural contexts of the Victorian period;

Draw comparisons and connections between the set texts and to articulate these through critical analysis and close reading skills

The module will be delivered through nine 2-hour sessions on weekday evenings from 7-9pm. These sessions will consist of a 1-hour lecture followed by class discussion and group work on specific topics relating to the module. The discussion and group work will enable the students to think critically and contribute to the debates and topics presented during the lectures. The discussion-led sessions and the lectures will be supplemented by resources available to the students via Learning Central.

• The ability to communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form
• The ability to work effectively with others in groups and to learn collaboratively through discussion and interaction
• The ability to think critically, analyse texts, evaluate arguments, and challenge assumptions.
• The ability to formulate and justify arguments and conclusions and present appropriate supporting evidence
• The ability to locate relevant resources in the library and online and use them appropriately in academic work
• The ability to use a range of information technology resources to assist  with information retrieval and assignment presentation
• The ability to independently organise study methods, manage time effectively, and prioritise workload to meet deadlines

How the module will be assessed

Formative assessment / feedback will occur on a weekly basis through class discussion and group work.

Type of assessment

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Assignment 1 (Essay)

10%

Exact nature of task will vary from year to year

300 words

Week 3

Assignment 2 (Close Analysis)

30%

Exact nature of task will vary from year to year

500 words

Week 6

Assignment 3 (Essay)

60%

Exact nature of task will vary from year to year

700 words

1 Week after final session

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (1847)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Lady Audley's Secret (1861-2)

Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)

Recommended editions are Penguin Classics or Oxford World’s Classics. Students will be expected to purchase their own copies of the set texts detailed in the syllabus content.

Week 1            Introduction           

Week 2            Jane Eyre

Week 3            Jane Eyre

Week 4            Jane Eyre

Week 5            Lady Audley's Secret

                        Reading Week

Week 6            Lady Audley's Secret

Week 7            Lady Audley's Secret

Week 8           Dracula

Week 9           Dracula and concluding Question and Answer session

This is not a comprehensive list. The sections below work as guidelines to direct your further reading. You should also use the library databases and catalogues to build your own bibliographies.

Essential texts
 

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, Lady Audley's Secret (1861-2)

Brontë, Charlotte, Jane Eyre (1847)

Stoker, Bram, Dracula (1897)

Brantlinger, Patrick and William B. Thesing, eds, A Companion to the Victorian Novel (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002)

Eagleton, Terry, The English Novel (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)

Gilmour, Robin, The Novel in the Victorian Age: A Modern Introduction (London: Edward Arnold, 1986)

Levine, George, How to Read the Victorian Novel (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)

O’Gorman, Francis, ed., A Concise Companion to the Victorian Novel (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)

Purchase, Sean, Key Concepts in Victorian Literature (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Recommended texts

Altick, Richard D., The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900, 2nd edn. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998)

Auerbach, Nina, Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992)

Barreca, Regina, ed. Sex and Death in Victorian Literature (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990)

Belsey, Catherine, Critical Practice (London: Routledge, 1980)

Brantlinger, Patrick, Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009)

David, Deirdre, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (Cambridge: CUP, 2001)

Davis, Philip, ed., The Oxford English Literary History: The Victorians Vol. 8, 1830-1880 (Oxford:           Oxford University Press, 2002)

Dolin, Kieran, Fiction and the Law: Legal Discourse in Victorian and Modernist Literature (Cambridge:    Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Eagleton, Terry, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983)

Ermarth, Elizabeth Deeds, Realism and Consensus in the English Novel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983)

Faber, Richard, Proper Stations: Class in Victorian Fiction (London: Faber and Faber, 1971)

Hamilton, Susan, Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors: Victorian Writing By Women on Women (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004)

Kaplan, Cora, Victoriana: Histories, Fictions, Criticism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007)

Kucich, John, Repression in Victorian Fiction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987)

------, The Power of Lies: Transgression in Victorian Fiction (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994)

Royle, Nicholas, and Andrew Bennett, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, 3rd edn (Harlow: Pearson Higher Education, 2004)

Walder, Dennis, Literature in the Modern World (Oxford: Open University Press, 1991)

Young, Arlene, Culture, Class and Gender in the Victorian Novel (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999)