The Self and the World: Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL3059 | English | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- ENGL3059
- School
- English
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
The years from 1660 to 1830 are enormously important, especially in terms of the representation of the self in literature: Milton promoted the idea of the poet inspired by God; Pope and Swift mocked the possibility of anyone truly knowing their self; Wordsworth used poetry to explore his own life; and Byron and Austen provided ironic commentaries on the self-obsessions of their peers. This period also saw the rise of the novel (a form that relies upon telling the story of lives), a flourishing trade in biography, and the emergence of new genre, autobiography.
This module will look at some of the most significant works of the period with particular reference to the relationship between writers and their worlds. Topics might include: the emergence, importance and limitations of life-writing; self-fashioning; the construction and deconstruction - of the Romantic author; transmission and revision; translation and imitation; ideas of the self and gender; intertextuality, adaptation, and rewriting; creating and destroying the past; and writing revolution.
Texts studied will range across poems, novels and prose; they might include Paradise Lost (1660) and Frankenstein (1818). Authors studied might include Rochester, Pope, Fielding, Johnson, Austen, Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Mary Shelley.
Target Students
Only available for final-year students on SH and JH English programmes; including 2+2 programmes; students participating in exchanges from the School partner institutions; and final-year students on the Liberal Arts programme.
Classes
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks
Assessment
- Coursework 1: 1000-word formative piece
- 100% Coursework 2: A 3500-word essay, submitted at end of semester
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
This module will equip students with an understanding of the texts and contexts of the period under study. It will connect two literary eras – the Early Modern and the long Nineteenth century – which they are likely to have a more vivid sense of, helping them to develop a more nuanced ideas about periodization and the way the discipline conceives of literature’s relationship to time. It will build on the close-reading skill and historical awareness developed in level 2 modules, and encourage students to understand the ways in which texts are edited, represented, and revised. It will help students to understand and the ways in which life-writing and self-representation emerges towards the end of this period as a predominant mode of literary expression.Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding of:
- Critical and theoretical approaches to the texts of the period.
- The cultural and historical contexts of the period.
- The ways cultural contexts and institutions influence, shape and transmit literature.
- The broader questions of “narrative” and “periodization” in literary study
Intellectual skills
- The ability to engage in close and evidenced analysis of texts and extra-textual factors
- The ability to weigh evidence and build on the work of previous critics
- The ability to bring abstract ideas to bear on particular texts and issues
Professional practical skills
- The ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of literary, linguistic and theoretical concepts
- The ability to present work accurately according to the conventions of the discipline
Transferable (key) skills
- The ability to communicate effectively in writing
- The ability to construct a nuanced argument and present evidence