SE2542: Eighteenth Century Women Writers

School English Literature
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE2542
External Subject Code Q320
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Melanie Bigold
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2014/5

Outline Description of Module

This module aims to introduce students to the extraordinary output of British women writers in the long eighteenth century. It will look at a diverse range of genres (e.g. letters, poetry, prose fiction, political philosophy) as well as consider some dominant themes in works produced by, and sometimes about, British women. Themes addressed may include piety, domesticity, romance, feminism, anti-feminism, and education. The course will also address the means and modes of women’s involvement in literary culture and subsequent concerns with the history of women’s literary history. Authors covered will include Katherine Philips, Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn, Anne Finch, Eliza Haywood, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Elizabeth Carter, and Frances Burney.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

On completion of the module students will be expected to demonstrate an awareness of women’s literary history, be able to discuss the importance of genre and gender in relation to work produced by British women writers, be able to identify themes and discourses relevant to the construction of femininity in the period, and perform close readings of the given texts

How the module will be delivered

Timetabled sessions includelectures and discussion sessions where students will be expected to make presentations and/or lead discussion. Lectures are usually supplemented with handouts or powerpoints. These are usually made available to students on Learning Central at least 24 hours before the session.

There will be a weekly lecture across the term supported by two weekly seminars. The lectures aim to provide key knowledge and critical perspectives on all the texts on the module; the seminars provide the opportunity for close analysis and small group discussion.

There is a participation mark of 10% on this course. Participation will be assessed based upon a presentation of a small piece of textual analysis (no more than 500 words). The midterm assignment is a commonplace book of approximately 1200 words (30%). Final assessment is one essay of 1800 words (60%).

Skills that will be practised and developed

The particular skills of the module bear upon reading and understanding eighteenth-century women’s writing in its historical context, as well as in a historiographical sense (that is, how history writing has constructed the historical women). This requires careful scholarship, sensitivity to language and historical awareness. Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information, operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments in a professional manner.

How the module will be assessed

The module is assessed by two pieces of written work and a participation mark based on a seminar presentation at any point during the term. The presentation will entail a close reading of 10-20 lines of that week’s set text (you will be asked to turn in a short summary of the presentation). The first assignment (a commonplace book) allows students to practise a range of generic forms as part of their commonplace book entries (article/book reviews, presentation summary, journal entries, short critical analyses, etc). The second assignment will be an essay covering the full range of texts on the course.

Type of assessment

Title

Duration (exam) /

Word length (essay)

Approx. date of assessment

Participation

10

Presentation

200

Throughout term

Midterm

30

Commonplace book

1200

Week 6

Essay

60

Final assessment

1800

Exam period

This module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Course Guide. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Presentation 10 Presentation N/A
Written Assessment 30 Common Place Book N/A
Written Assessment 60 Essay N/A

Syllabus content

The main readings for this module are contained in a published anthology and texts, online, and a course reader. Students should contact the module leader as early as possible if they will require readings in an alternative format.

Week 1– Introduction

Week 2– A History of Women’s Literary History in the Eighteenth Century

Week 3– An Exemplary Tradition (Katherine Philips et al)

Week 4– A Problematic Tradition (Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood)

Week 5– Authorship/Authority (Margaret Cavendish)

Week 6 – Reading Week

Week 7 – Anti-feminism: perspectives on female vanity, nature, artifice (various)

Week 8– Familiar Letters (Margaret Cavendish and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Week 9– The Novel – Frances Burney, Evelina

Week 10 –The Novel – Frances Burney, Evelina

Week 11 – Assessed Essay Revision

Essential Reading and Resource List

Week 1 – Introduction

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea, ‘The introduction’*

Week 2– A History of Women’s Literary History in the Eighteenth Century

Background Texts: Margaret Ezell, Chapter 1: `A Tradition of Our Own: Writing Women’s Literary History in the Twentieth Century’, in Writing Women's literary history (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). [Available on short loan]

Week 3– The Exemplary Tradition: Friendship, Piety and Domesticity

Katherine Philips, ‘To Mrs. Mary Aubrey at parting’ and ‘Friendship’ *; Elizabeth Singer Rowe, ‘Platonick Love’* and Humane Love: By a Country Gentleman, In Answer to Platonick Love’*; Elizabeth Carter, ‘On the Death of Mrs. Rowe’ (1737 - L167), and 1762 version*; Frances Seymour, Countess of Hertford, ‘[To the Countess of Pomfret: Life at Richkings]’ (L109); Mary Leapor, ‘The Epistle of Deborah Dough’ (L209)

Week 4– A Problematic Tradition

Aphra Behn, Preface to The Lucky Chance,* and ‘To the Fair Clarinda’*; Eliza Haywood, Fantomina (1725). Available at: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/fantomina.html

Week 5  - Authorship/Authority

Margaret Cavendish, A True Relation of my Birth, Breeding, and Lifeand The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World [C]

Week 6 – Reading Week

Week 7– Perspectives on female vanity, nature, artifice

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ‘Saturday. The small pox’ (L56); ______,  Mary Leapor, ‘An essay on woman’ (L207); Mary Whately, ‘The Vanity of external accomplishments’ (L260)

Week 8– Familiar Letters

Margaret Cavendish, selections from Sociable Letters [C]; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, selections from Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W---y M---e; Written during Her Travels. Available at:

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/montagu-letters-abridged.html

or, if you would like to read more::

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/montagu-letters.html

Week 9 The Novel

Frances Burney, Evelina

Week 10– The Novel

Frances Burney, Evelina

Week 11 –  Revision

Background Reading and Resource List

INDICATIVE READING AND RESOURCE LIST:

1. Eighteenth-century women poets. An Oxford anthology, ed. Roger Lonsdale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) = [L]

2. Margaret Cavendish, Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader, eds. Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Mendelson (Broadview Press, 2000) = [C]

3. Course reader:texts marked with an asterisk (*)

4. France Burney, Evelina (Oxford University Press, 2008)


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