Victorian and Fin de Siecle Literature: 1830-1910

Code

ENGL2028

School

English

Level

2

Credits

20

Semesters

Autumn Malaysia

Summary

This module will enable students to explore the wide variety of Victorian and fin-de-siècle literature, with examples from fiction (both novels and short stories), critical writing, poetry and drama. It will examine changes in literary forms and genres over this period, as well as paying some attention to the contested transition between Victorianism and Modernism. The module is organised in terms of a number of interrelated themes, which may include: empire and race, class and labour relations, gender and sexuality, decadence and aestheticism, religious faith and doubt, and evolution and degeneration.  Students are encouraged to consider issues of genre and make connections between the ways these themes are represented and explored in specific literary works, and larger changes in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social, political, intellectual and publishing culture.

Target Students

Compulsory for Level 2 BA English Language and Literature and BA English with Creative Writing students. Available to International Communication Studies with English Literature and Language students. Available to exchange student. Further info:http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/prospective/international/exchangestudents.aspx. Available to JYA/Erasmus students.

Classes

• One 3-hour seminar each week for 12 weeks

Activities may take place every teaching week of the Semester or only in specified weeks. It is usually specified above if an activity only takes place in some weeks of a Semester.

Assessment

• 40% Coursework 1: 2000 -word close reading essay (mid-term)
• 60% Coursework 2: 3000 - word essay (end of term)

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding of:

• knowledge and understanding of the defining features of literary works produced during the period 1830-1910
• knowledge and understanding of the relationship of those features to social, political and cultural contexts
• the ability to compare literature of different genres from across the period, accounting for thematic and stylistic intersections and variations.

Intellectual skills

• the ability to think independently while giving due weight to the arguments of others
• the ability to understand complex ideas, and relate them to specific problems or questions.

Professional practical skills

• the ability to communicate effectively in writing
• the ability to present a logical and sustained argument
• the ability to conduct research, evaluating and employing secondary sources in a scholarly manner

   

Conveners

• Sina Movaghati