This module introduces students to the degree-level study of English Literature by looking at  two key genres and their forms. Lectures on the novel (Weeks 1-5) trace the development of the modern novel through the close examination of four major examples of the genre from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Concentrating on works by Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, James Joyce and Toni Morrison, the lectures will ask what is unique about the novel form, and explore why it became the most dominant form of literary expression over the course of these two centuries. We will pay attention to the specific period contexts of each novel, and introduce a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to reading novels.

In Weeks 7-11, the lectures look at a range of poems in English from different historical periods, and are concerned with the ways in which language and form work in poetry and the kinds of readings we can employ in looking at poems. As with the lectures on the novel, we are concerned with how texts mean and how we read those meanings. 

The seminars supporting the lectures will focus on close reading and on developing students’ writing and presentation skills.

On completion of the module  students should have an enriched understanding of the history of the modern novel. They should be able to undertake close readings of the set texts whilst displaying an awareness of relevant literary, historical, and critical contexts. In addition,  students should be able to demonstrate their knowledge of some of the issues involved in the criticism of poetry across its various forms and be able to apply their knowledge to a number of texts through the central practice of close reading.

The module will be taught by two lectures per week for one semester, plus one seminar a week. Lectures and seminars in Weeks 1-5 cover the novel while those in Weeks 7-11 focus on poetry.

The key skill for the module is the development of analytic skills that will inform critical writing and result in an assured essay style, paying close attention to form and meaning

The module is assessed by a 2.5 hour exam on poetry and an essay on the novel. 

 The main readings for this module are texts and journal articles.Students should contact the module leaders as early as possible if they will require the provided readings in an alternative format. Timetabled sessions include lectures and seminars where students may have the opportunity to make presentations and/or lead discussion. Lectures are usually supplemented with handouts or slides summarising content at a reasonable level of detail. These are usually made available to students on Learning Central at least 24 hours before the session. There are no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities. 

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

 In accordance with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed assessment, with the cap on the individual essay or exam set at 40.

For the novel (Weeks 1-5):

Week 1: Introduction to the Novel / Guidance on Essay Writing

Week 2: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Week 3: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Week 4: James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Week 5: Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Week 6: Reading Week

For poetry (Weeks 7-11):

Topics include: the nature of the different forms of poetry, including ballad, sonnet, elegy, modern poetry and the main topics of poetry (love, death, religion) as well as such ideas as wit, intertexuality and modernism.

For The Novel:

Set texts:

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre, ed. Beth Newman. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism (Boston: Bedford Books of St Martin's Press, 1996) [other editions are also acceptable]

Charles Dickens. Great Expectations, ed. Janice Carlisle. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism (Boston: Bedford Books of St, Martin's Press, 1996) [other editions are also acceptable]

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. Jeri Johnson (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970; London: Vintage, 1994)

For Poetry:

Set Text:

The Norton Anthology of Poetry, fifth edition, ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy, (New York and London: Norton, 2005)

Secondary Reading (the Novel)

Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Armstrong, Tim. Modernism: A Cultural History. Cambridge: Polity, 2005.

Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern British Novel. London: Secker and Warburg, 1993.

Bradshaw, David. A Concise Companion to Modernism. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

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

Brooker, Peter, ed. Modernism/Postmodernism. London: Longman: 1992.

Childs, Peter. Modernism. London: Routledge, 2000.

Connor, Steven. Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.

David, Deirdre, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

-----. The English Novel. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.

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

Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London: Routledge, 1988.

Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso, 1991.

Levenson, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Lukacs, Georg. Theory of the Novel, trans. Anna Bostock. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990.

-----, ed., Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Nicol, Brian, ed. Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002.

Nicholls, Peter. Modernisms: A Literary Guide. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995.

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

Stevenson, Randall. Modernist Fiction. New York: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Waugh, Patricia. Practising Postmodernism, Reading Modernism. London: Edward Arnold, 1992.

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society 1780-1950. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961. 

Secondary Reading (Poetry)

M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, sixth edition (New York: Holt, Reinhart & Winston, 1993)

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

Richard Bradford, Poetry: The Ultimate Guide (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)

Scott Brewster, Lyric (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009)

Thomas Carper and Derek Attridge, Meter and Meaning (Abingdon: Routledge, 2003)

A. D. Cousins and Peter Howarth (eds), The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Terry Eagleton, How To Read a Poem (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)

Tom Furniss and Michael Bath, Reading Poetry: An Introduction (Harlow: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1996)

David Kennedy, Elegy (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007)

X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, An Introduction to Poetry (London: Longman, 1998)

John Lennard, The Poetry Handbook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Richard Machin and Christopher Norris (eds), Post-Structuralist Readings of English Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)

Stephen Matterson and Darryl Jones, Studying Poetry (London: Arnold, 2000)

John Peck and Martin Coyle, Practical Criticism, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995)

Claude Rawson (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to English Poets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

John Strachan and Richard Terry, Poetry (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011)

Jeremy Tambling, RE: Verse: Turning Towards Poetry (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2007)

Rhian Williams, The Poetry Toolkit (London: Bloomsbury, 2013)