Transatlantic Avant-Gardes, 1820-1900

Module title	Transatlantic Avant-Gardes, 1820-1900
Module code	TRU2910
Academic year	2019/0
Credits	15
Module staff	Dr Christopher Stokes (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		5

Number students taking module (anticipated)	16

Module description

This module will address the radical innovations of prose and poetry writing in the nineteenth century in Great Britain and America. It will consider the role experimental poetics played as writers reacted against a materialist society to consider the aesthetic and spiritual function of literature in an increasingly secular age. In raising these issues it will give particular consideration to the way these writers reacted to earlier literary works and understood their own role as artists. It asks to what extent new forms or languages were necessary to articulate artistic vision in what Elizabeth Barratt Browning labelled ‘an age of mere transition.’

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce students to a broad range of nineteenth-century literary forms, including poetry, novels, and short stories. In particular it aims to offer a reflective sampling of writers who can be considered as ‘avant garde’ because of the way that they advance specific artistic ideas or manifestos. It aims to enable students to historicise these texts these texts, both in context of the artistic milieu of their respective societies and in the context of an emerging transatlantic sensibility. Students will learn to effectively negotiate their understanding of these contexts with their close reading of poetic and prose forms.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Analyse Nineteenth-century poetry in relation to broader critical and historical contexts
2. Combine close reading of poetry with situating of texts in relation to intellectual and historical contexts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Analyse literature of an earlier era and relate its concerns and modes of expression to its historical context
4. Interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Through seminar work, demonstrate communication skills, and work both individually and in groups
6. Through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and write clear and correct prose

Syllabus plan

This is an indicative syllabus. Texts and topics may include some of the following:

L.E.L., The Improvastrice
Short Fiction (e.g. Dickens, Poe)
Pre-Raphaelite poetry
Selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
African-American fin-de-siecle writing

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
19	131	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	5	Lecture large-group teaching, text-based lecture based on up-to-date scholarship (5 x 1 hour)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	10	Seminars small-group teaching, study notes/questions provided in advance. Combination of free discussion, small-group work and/or small-group activities (5 x 2 hours)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	4	Workshops small-group teaching involving discussion of specific critical contexts and practical skills (2 x 2 hour)
Guided Independent Study	131	Reading, researching, writing, seminar preparation, ELE- and web-based activity, attending office hours with tutor, etc

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Presentation	15 minutes	1-5	Oral
Literature review	500 words	1-4, 6	Written and oral

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
90	0	10

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	90	2000 words	1-4, 6	Coversheet and oral
Participation	10	Continuous	1-5	Oral feedback with opportunity for office hours follow-up

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay	1-4, 6	Referral/deferral period
Participation	Repeat study or mitigation	1-5	Referral/deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

This module assumes you have purchased the Norton Anthology of English Literature

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7572 (other texts and a full digital reading list will be provided on ELE)

Key words search

Poetry, romanticism, Victorian, nineteenth-century

Credit value	15
Module ECTS	7.5
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	5
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	01/03/2017
Last revision date	14/03/2019