THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOVEL

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOVEL

Module Level:

Module Leader:

Dr R. Dover

Module Credit Value:

10 Credit Points

Recommended prior knowledge:

Prior to the module students should have acquired sound knowledge of critical approaches to literature, particularly basic theories of narrative and narratology, of authorial “intentionalism” and experience of textual analysis. The ‘Introduction to Narrative’ Level I module would be particularly useful.

Aims

The module aims might be described as follows:

to give students the opportunity to develop their reading and understanding of a number of key nineteenth century novels
to enable students to develop for themselves a background understanding of the development of the nineteenth century novelistic tradition, and of those social, cultural and ideological contexts which have informed that development
to give students the opportunity to investigate the relationship between literary form and structure and “meaning” in the reading of specified texts, and novelistic texts in general
to develop individual students’ skills of detailed reading, analysis, discussion and understanding of complex discursive forms.

Indicative Content

The legacy of the eighteenth century novel, with particular emphasis on issues of empirical and philosophical Realism, and other narrative modes.

The nature of nineteenth century Realism, including British and Continental modes of Realism and Naturalism, and the assimilation of Gothic, Fantasy, Tragic and Comic modes.

Social and cultural contexts of the nineteenth century novel, including issues of readership, production and distribution, the role and status of the Victorian novelist.

Responses and Representations: responses to industrialization and urbanisation; representation of gender and class, race and politics; ideology and moral teaching.

Narrative modes, styles and strategies, including changing forms of narrative discourse and narrative positionality.

Specific Texts

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens Great Expectations
George Eliot Middlemarch
Thomas Hardy Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenin

Reference will also a range of secondary texts, including Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Balzac, Cousin Bette, Gustav Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, and Emile Zola, Germinal.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit each student should be able to:

demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the texts studied on the module, and to be able to respond independently and intelligently to the complex questions and issues raised by those texts
demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of some of the key and decisive shifts within the form of the nineteenth century novel
provide evidence of an ability to relate and apply knowledge of specific texts to the discussion, analysis and interpretation of the nineteenth century novel in general terms
describe and evaluate some of the determining social cultural and historical contexts which have informed the development of the nineteenth century novel
Evaluate and discriminate between some of the key critical perspectives which have been applied to the interpretation of major examples of the nineteenth century novel
provide evidence of having developed a critically informed and questioning perspective towards the concepts of “realism” and “the novel” as a literary forms, and their relationship to other literary forms and modes of expression
provide evidence of having developed individual skills of detailed, questioning, analytical, sensitive and discriminating reading and interpretation, and of further being able to articulate and discuss view and judgments with their peers

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Texts will be studied in blocks of 2-3 weeks, accompanied by strategic general lectures at various points in the unit to provide background perspectives and introduce general issues. All texts will be studied in weekly seminar groups, with students also being given the opportunity for individual close analysis of key passages, and workshop activities on particular issues and questions. Individual study time will be used for the individual reading of texts, the reading of relevant secondary critical studies, and for the preparation of seminar activities.

Assessment Strategies

The module will be assessed through a balance of coursework (40%) and examination (60%). Coursework requirements will consist of one 2,000-word assignment, prepared by students within one month of the publication of assignment questions. Assignment questions will contain a mixture of text-specific and general questions, each question designed to elicit detailed analytical and interpretative responses to open-ended issues. The Examination will be a 90-minute unseen paper, with students being required to answer one general and one specific questions on the material they have studied on the module.

Students will be assessed on their detailed knowledge of the novels themselves, on their ability to apply, relate and evaluate appropriate critical insights and perspectives. In coursework assignments tutors will be looking for intelligent, detailed, discriminating, sensitive and informed responses, both to individual texts, and to the wider issues and terms governing the development of the novelistic tradition. In examination answers tutors will be looking for evidence of sound, informed and intelligent critical responses, with evidence of the ability to read and interpret in ways which are independent, critical and discriminating, and showing evidence also of a breadth as well as depth of response, as appropriate for a Level II module.

Bibliography

Required Reading

Allen, W., The English Novel, (Penguin, 1954)
Booth, W.C., The Rhetoric of Fiction, (Chicago, 1961)
Kettle, A., An Introduction to the English Novel, Vols I and II (Macmilllan, 1951)
ed. Arnold Kettle, The Nineteenth Century Novel, (OUP, 1974)
Leavis, F.R., The Great Tradition, (Penguin, 1962)
Open University, A312: The Nineteenth Century Novel (Open University)
Williams, R., The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, (Hogarth, 1984)

Recommended Reading

Altick, R.D., The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900 (Chicago UP, 1957)
Beer, G., Darwin’s Plots (OUP, 1983)
Butler, M., Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, (Clarendon, 1975)
(ed) Carsanigo, G.M., The Age of Realism (Penguin, 1974)
Connor, S., Charles Dickens, (OUP, 1988)
Dentith, S., George Eliot, (Harvester, 1986)
Eagleton, Myths of Power (OUP, 1982)
Figes, E., Sex and Subterfuge: Women Novelists to 1850, (Macmillan, 1979)
Ford, B. (ed), From Dickens to Hardy, (Penguin, 1982)
Gilbert, S.M. and Gubar, S., The Madwoman in the Attic (OUP, 1979)
Gilmour, R., The Novel in the Victorian Age, (Arnold, 1986)
(ed) Hawthorne, J., The Nineteenth century Novel, (Arnold, 1986)
Keating, P.J., The Haunted study: A Social History of the English Novel, (Secker and Warburg, 1989)
Monaghan, D., Jane Austen in a Social Context, (Barnes and Noble, 1980)
Thorlby, A., Tolstoy: Anna Karenin (C.U.P., 1983)
Tomlinson, T.B., The English Middle Class Novel, ( OUP 1976)
Wheeler, M., English Fiction of the Victorian Period, (Longman, 1985)

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