Module overview
Revolutions would break, remake, and reform societies on both sides of the Atlantic from the disruptions of the English Civil War to the global conflicts of the Napoleonic Empire. Revolutions may be those sudden changes in political life that men have traditionally claimed for themselves—the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution—but they may also be those sustained acts of resistance, those apparently small-scale innovations, that lead to a gradual reimagining of both nature and of the natural order. In the works on this module we will explore:
•the rise of female education, and the rise of the novel;
•the proliferation of print and the professionalisation of literature;
•the establishment of literary canons, and new interest in the non-canonical;
•the challenge of Romanticism.
In all of these concerns we will find ourselves returning to that most powerful, and yet elusive, of forms, the romance.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Draw on the knowledge and the critical tools needed to think about the concepts of authorship and literary value in the Restoration, Enlightenment and Romantic periods
- Understand and explain literary scholarship on Restoration, Enlightenment and Romantic-Period writings
- Reflect on your own position as a scholar in relation to these debates in the period, and today.
- Give an account of the practices which made—and continue to make—certain texts more widely available, more expensive, more intelligible, more dangerous, or more central to our understanding of the value of English literature
- Use this research and understanding to debate a variety of scholarly perspectives
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The establishment of literary canons, and new interest in the non-canonical
- The proliferation of print and the professionalisation of literature
- English literary texts, authors, and genres between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries.
- How the idea of an English Literary tradition has been constructed in and through this period
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Think and write with clarity and conviction
Syllabus
The module will take you through a series of case studies, each anchored in a specific Restoration, Enlightenment or Romantic text, that enable you to explore the relationship between constructions of authorship, the book, ideas of literary value, and literary tradition. Specific texts and authors will vary from year to year, but topics are likely to include: Authorship, Prestige, and Income; Shaping the Anthology; Translating the Word of God; Anonymity and Collaboration; Female Readers, Translators, Writers. Specific authors and texts will vary from year to year, but are likely to include Eliza Haywood, the Earl of Rochester, Samuel Richardson, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Jane Austen and John Keats.
An outline for the semester may look as follows:
1) Restoration as Revolution: George Etherege and Aphra Behn
2) The dangers of Romance: Mary Astell and early feminism
3) Revolutions in Romance: Daniel Defoe
4) Embracing Romance: Eliza Haywood
5) Resisting Romance: Pope’s women
6) Revolutions in Reception: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
7) Romance and Romanticism: Christabel, The Ancient Mariner; Keats, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, ‘Lamia’, ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’
8) Restaging Romance. Elizabeth Inchbald, Lovers’ Vows
9) Revolution in the country house: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
10) Revolutionary Romance: Byron, The Corsair, Don Juan
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- lectures
- seminars
- individual consultations
- feedback on written work and seminar presentations
Learning activities include
- reading assigned texts
- independent research
- seminar discussion and presentations
- writing essays
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; one-to-one assignment consultations; one-to-one feedback and feed-forward sessions.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 5 |
| Follow-up work | 10 |
| Assessment tasks | 50 |
| Wider reading or practice | 19 |
| Lecture | 11 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 44 |
| Seminar | 11 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Module Resources will vary from year to year. Authors studied will include a variety of polemicists such as Mary Astell and Aphra Behn, novelists from Daniel Defoe and Eliza Haywood to Samuel Richardson and Jane Austen, and poets from Alexander Pope to John Keats and Lord Byron.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 60% |
| Essay | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 40% |
| Essay | 60% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External