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Romantics and Victorians: Literature in the Industrial Age

Module description

This module is a survey course covering British literature and culture between c.1800 and c.1900. It gives you an insight into the evolution of poetry and prose fiction from Romanticism, through to the high-Victorian realist novel, and fin-de-siècle periodical fiction. This module pays close attention to the ways in which literary concerns and styles relate to their social, political, and cultural contexts. In particular, you will consider literary texts in terms of social reform, technological development, the British Empire, religious ‘Doubt’, and evolutionary science. 

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module will give you a broad overview of the nineteenth century. In particular, it aims to offer a reflective sampling of major genres and modes, and will enable you to respond to the texts in light of knowledge of the developing conventions of those genres and modes. The module also aims to historicise its texts, introducing you to current critical thinking and debates on the relationships between contexts and texts.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of specific nineteenth-century literary texts and authors
• 2. Describe the relation between nineteenth-century literature and important historical and intellectual developments of the time

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. 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...

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

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Lectures will introduce the themes under discussion including for example, social reform, technological development, the British Empire, religion, and evolutionary science. Seminars will focus on primary texts and may include the following:

• Romantic poetry
• Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
• Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam
• Victorian poetry
• Short stories from colonial India (e.g. Tagore, Kipling)
• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

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

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

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

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 submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative secondary texts:

• Deidre David, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (CUP, 2006)
• Michael O’Neill and Mark Sandy, eds. Romanticism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies, Vol. IV, Romanticism, Belief, and Philosophy (Routledge, 2006)
• Anna Barton, Tennyson’s Name: Identity and Responsibility in the Poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson (Routledge, 2016)
• Joseph Bristow, ed. Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend (Ohio UP, 2008)
• Robert Dixon, Writing the Colonial Adventure: Race, Gender, and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914 (CUP, 1995)
• Valerie Purton, ed. Darwin, Tennyson and their Readers: Explorations in Victorian Literature and Science (Anthem, 2014)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7571

Key words search

Romanticism, Victorian, nineteenth-century literature