University of the West of England
MODULE SPECIFICATION
(Template Revised October 2005)
Code: UPGPTA-30-2 Title: Exploring the Eighteenth Century Version: 3
Level: 2 UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities Field: English
Valid from: September 2008 Discontinued from:
Contributes towards: Awards up to BA/BSC (Hons)
Pre-requisites: UPGPDC-60-1 Approaches to Literature and Criticism or UPGPDD-30-1 Narrative Literature – Prose and Verse
Co-requisites: None Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
On completing the assessments for this course students will demonstrate an ability to:
§ Appreciate, analyse and discuss the different literary genres on the course (Components A and B);
§ Appreciate, analyse and discuss chosen texts based on close critical reading (Components A and B);
§ Appreciate, analyse and discuss the literature of the period in terms of its broader literary, cultural and historical contexts (Components A and B);
§ Appreciate, analyse and discuss the wider literary and cultural history of the eighteenth century (Component B);
§ Appreciate, analyse and discuss the texts on the course within the context of influential debates and theoretical paradigms in secondary criticism(Component B);
§ Develop research skills through the engagement with and selection of an appropriate and wide range of secondary reading (Component B).
Syllabus outline:
In this module we shall explore the long eighteenth century, understood to extend from the Restoration to the end of Romanticism. This is a period of immense change: burgeoning economic activity, colonial adventure and exploitation, travel, urban development, and the cultural propositions of the Enlightenment make this an exciting and challenging time. You will have the opportunity to study a range of different genres from the period, including poetry, the novel, and epistolary writing. Particular attention will be paid to the emergence of the novel and the development of the Bildungsroman, and there will be a focus on the intertextual elements of many of these texts. The main themes will include gender, sensibility, the nature of man, travel and exploration, colonialism, and commerce. We shall chart the move in the eighteenth century from a Neo-Classical and Augustan culture to a pre-Romantic context in which order was challenged and the rational strand of the Enlightenment was questioned. The comic side of eighteenth-century literature will be emphasised, its wit and satire, as well as its more philosophic concerns with society and civility.
Teaching and learning methods:
The teaching and learning methods for this course consist of one lecture and one seminar every week over two semesters. The lectures may provide historical and contextual information, thematic analysis, theoretically grounded arguments and intertextual readings of the material across the course. Visual aids will feature in some lectures. Seminars will focus on specific texts and offer the opportunity for group work and close reading from which theoretical perspectives may emerge. Students may also avail of their tutors’ office hours for one-to-one advice and guidance.
Reading Strategy
The texts that students will need to buy and read for this module will be provided by the list of primary material given in the module handbook. The secondary bibliography provided in the handbook is an extensive list of books, journals and electronic databases, available in the library and relevant to this course that students will be expected to browse and from which they will select items for research. In addition to these bibliographies, students will be expected to read widely using the library catalogue, a variety of bibliographic and full text databases and Internet resources. Guidance to key authors, journal titles and important databases will be given in the module handbook, in seminars and in lectures, as well as on UWE online. It is expected that assignment bibliographies and reference lists will reflect the reading carried out.
It is important that students can identify and retrieve appropriate reading. This module offers an opportunity to develop information skills introduced in Level 1.
Indicative sources:
The following list is offered to provide validation panels/accrediting bodies with an indication of the type and level of information students may be expected to consult. As such its currency may wane during the life span of the module specification. However, as indicated above, current advice on reading will be available via more frequently updated mechanisms.
Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and domestic fiction : a political history of the novel. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press,1987.
Brown, Laura. Ends of empire : women and ideology in early eighteenth-century English literature. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,1993.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge, 1999.
Castle, Terry. Masquerade and civilisation : the carnivalesque in eighteenth-century English culture and fiction. London: Methuen,1986.
Colley, Linda. Britons : forging the nation, 1707-1837. London:Vintage,1992.
Defoe, Daniel. Roxana (1724).
Doody, Margaret Anne. The true story of the novel. London:HarperCollins,1997.
Ellis, Markman. The politics of sensibility : race, gender and commerce in the sentimental novel. Cambridge :Cambridge University Press,1996.
Brycchan Carey, Sara Salih eds.Discourses of slavery and abolition : Britain and its colonies, 1760-1838. Basingstoke:Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones (1749).
Nussbaum, Felicity ed. The New Eighteenth Century: Theory, Politics, English Literature. New York: Methuen, 1987.
Pope, Alexander. An Essay on Man, Epistle One. (1733).
Rawson, Claude. Satire and Sentiment 1660-1830. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1994.
Richetti, John ed. The Cambridge companion to the eighteenth-century novel Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1996.
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela (1741).
Assessment
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 35% B: 65%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Seen Exam (2 hrs) 35%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Essay and accompanying self-reflective piece (2500 words) 25%
2. Essay (2500 words) 35%
3. Attendance (for the whole module) 5%
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Seen Exam (2hrs) 35%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Essay and accompanying self-reflective piece (2500 words) 25%
2. Essay (3000 words) 40%
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT: Attendance at taught classes is required.
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ………………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)