| Unit name | Period Unit 3 (1780 - 1900) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL30144 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Pam Lock |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
n/a |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
n/a |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
n/a |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
This unit will introduce students to a range of literature published between 1780-1900. In doing so the unit will enable students to engage with such ideas as radicalism and political revolution, urbanisation and industrialisation, class, empire, personhood, gender identity and sexual inequality, emancipation, and developments in science, technology, and medicine. The unit will expose students to a range of literary forms, elite, popular and middlebrow. Key forms and genres considered are likely to include the rise of Romanticism, Realism, Sensation Fiction and the Gothic. Other relevant prose works will also be considered, especially those that influenced imaginative writers in this century, such as Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. The unit raises major questions about: the evolution of new genres; the role of the author and the social utility of art; poetry and poetics; the power of gender, sexual, national, class and racial identities; and the interplay between literature, widening literacy and national education; and the influence of new publishing practices on art and discourse. The focus will be primarily on English language fiction, but there will normally be an opportunity to study at least one novel or play in translation.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Period units facilitate your ongoing and detailed appreciation of the chronology and historical development of literature in English. You will gain knowledge of and insight into literary forms, from poetry and prose to critical essays and drama. You will develop your practice of academic skills in close analysis and argument, encounter key critical concepts, and enhance your confidence as a researcher. Period units will enable you to understand the importance of historical contexts from the medieval period to the present day, while developing your sense of literary studies as a discipline.
An overview of content
This unit engages with a range of different writers, genres, historical and cultural contexts, and themes between 1780-1900. Mapping the literary history of this period through the growth of the novel (such as, Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Dickens’s Great Expectations), as well as key developments like Romanticism, the Gothic, Realism and the Condition of England novel, and the Woman Question, the unit begins in the late-18th century and ends with the fin de siècle’s interest in decadence, aestheticism, degeneration and art for art’s sake. The unit will also consider the place of the individual in society and literature including reflections on gender, race, and class. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the reputation of 18th and 19th Century writers and thinkers in the 20th and 21st Centuries to answer the question: how Victorian were the Victorians?
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
On completion of this unit students will be able to demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of the diverse, lively and challenging literary history of this period. They will also be able to articulate how these texts engaged with, intervened in, and contested contemporary political, social and cultural discourses, by approaching them through a range of appropriate theoretical and critical frameworks. The unit also includes some hands-on and research-led elements to help students develop the more advanced research and analytical skills required at this level.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:
This unit is normally taught through a series of 3-hour seminars. Seminars use a range of teaching methods including lectures, group discussion, research and writing activities, and peer dialogue. Students are expected to attend all timetabled teaching, engage with the reading, and participate fully with the weekly tasks and topics. Learning will be further supported through the opportunity for individual consultation. Students will be offered the opportunity to build towards the final assessment. Informal formative activities may include presentations, essay planning, and feedback on shorter written exercises or written drafts.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
3,500 word essay (100%) [ILOs 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the format or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are confirmed by the School/Centre shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGL30144).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
