Module Details

The information contained in this module specification was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen circumstances, or following review of the module at the end of the session. Queries about the module should be directed to the member of staff with responsibility for the module.
Title The Novel: 1740-1830
Code ENGL386
Coordinator Dr J Roberts
English
roberts@liverpool.ac.uk
Year CATS Level Semester CATS Value
Session 2024-25 Level 6 FHEQ Second Semester 30

Aims

The module will introduce students to a variety of forms of prose fiction in the period 1740-1830. The module will give students an understanding of how the novel developed in the century following the earliest British examples.


Learning Outcomes

(LO1) Students will acquire analytical skills and vocabulary appropriate to university-level work and be able to use them appropriately in relation to a range of sources from different historical periods and social contexts.

(LO2) Students will gain the ability to construct and support argument in written or spoken forms suitable for academic work and be able to participate constructively in group discussions.

(LO3) Students will gain awareness of cultural, theoretical and historical contexts of literature and language use.

(LO4) Students will have the ability to write well-constructed prose, reflecting appropriate scholarly knowledge and independent response within a sustained argument.

(LO5) Students will have knowledge of one or more specific literary historical periods and the language and genres associated with it/them.

(LO6) Students will have the ability to demonstrate research and evaluative skills that support wider literary or linguistic analysis, criticism, and/or data collection.

(S1) Students will gain the ability to analyse and interpret sophisticated texts closely and critically.

(S2) Students will gain the ability to construct and support argument in both written and spoken forms.

(S3) Students will gain the ability to write with appropriate subject knowledge, using appropriate approaches and terminology.

(S4) Students will gain the ability to identify and assess relevant information and data, and argue independently in response.

(S5) Students will gain the ability to critically evaluate research materials.

(S6) Students will gain the ability to undertake independent research, and to develop a sense of research attitude.


Syllabus

 

This is a course for anyone interested in the early novel, and focusses on prose fictions from the period 1740-1830, which is to say the development of the novel from its early appearances through into the Romantic period. If you have taken Victorian Literature, this is the story of how the novel developed prior to the appearance of writers such as Dickens and the Brontës. We look at the kinds of literature that fed into the early novel (such as journalism and travel writing), and the material conditions that were necessary to its development (print technologies and so on). We consider a wide range of related topics such as sensibility, the physiology of emotion, realism, and editing, and—in the context of the ongoing history of misogyny—we pay particular attention to the astonishingly courageous, radical, inventive, psychologically insightful, and funny writing of the women authors of the period. Writers on the course typically include Mary Davys, Samuel Richa rdson, Laurence Sterne, Horace Walpole, Henry Mackenzie, Mary Hays, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and James Hogg.


Teaching and Learning Strategies

This module will be taught by 1 x weekly 1-hour tutorial with small group and 2 x weekly 1-hour workshops with whole cohort (F2F or online, as appropriate).


Teaching Schedule

  Lectures Seminars Tutorials Lab Practicals Fieldwork Placement Other TOTAL
Study Hours     11

    22

33
Timetable (if known)              
Private Study 267
TOTAL HOURS 300

Assessment

EXAM Duration Timing
(Semester)
% of
final
mark
Resit/resubmission
opportunity
Penalty for late
submission
Notes
Assessment 2: Written 3-hour in-person unseen exam, scheduled by SAS, re-sit opportunity, anonymous.    67       
CONTINUOUS Duration Timing
(Semester)
% of
final
mark
Resit/resubmission
opportunity
Penalty for late
submission
Notes
Assessment 1 There is a resit opportunity. Standard UoL penalty applies for late submission. This is an anonymous assessment. Assessment Schedule (When): 2    33       
Practice Essay         

Recommended Texts

Reading lists are managed at readinglists.liverpool.ac.uk. Click here to access the reading lists for this module.