This module is not currently running in the selected year. The information shown below is for the academic year that the module was last running in, prior to the year selected.

2013/14 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3351 Forming Victorian Fiction

20 creditsClass Size: 36

School of English

Module manager: Dr Richard Salmon
Email: r.salmon@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2013/14

Module replaces

ENGL3875

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module explores the development of the novel during the early-Victorian period, focussing primarily on the decade of the 1840s. It traces the emergence of some of the most distinctive and influential forms of Victorian fiction, including the serialized novel, realist fiction (so-called 'industrial' or 'social-problem' novels), the bildungsroman (novel of education) and related forms of auto/biographical fiction, and the gothic romance. The module considers the first generation of Victorian novelists in terms of their transitional significance as the first post-Romantic writers of the nineteenth century.

Objectives

The module aims to examine the development of the novel during the early-Victorian period. Focussing primarily on the decade of the 1840s, it traces the emergence of some of the most distinctive and influential forms of Victorian fiction, including the serialized novel, realist fiction (so-called 'industrial' or 'social-problem' novels), the bildungsroman (novel of education) and related forms of auto/biographical fiction, and the gothic romance. The module also considers the first generation of Victorian novelists in terms of their transitional significance as post-Romantic writers.

Learning outcomes
The module will provide students with a detailed understanding of the emergence of the Victorian novel as a literary form, encompassing a variety of genres. It will also provide an extensive knowledge of the early-Victorian period (1830s to 1850s), both in terms of its major literary concerns and its relation to earlier and later periods of the nineteenth century.

Skills outcomes
- Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
- Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
- Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
- Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
- Critical reasoning.
- Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
- IT skills.
- Time management and organisational skills.
- Independent learning.

Syllabus

The module will feature a selection of texts by some of the most important early-Victorian novelists, including Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Elizabeth Gaskell, and the Brontës.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lectures	5	1.00	5.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

- Teaching will be through weekly seminars (10 x 1 hour), plus up to 5 additional hours (content to be determined by the module tutor). Additional time is given for the return of unassessed/assessed essays and feedback.

Private study time will be focussed on reading primary and secondary material to prepare for seminars (a secondary reading list is provided in addition to the list of set texts) and the required essay assessment.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Contribution to seminars
- Unassessed essay (week 7).

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4,000 words	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

One unassessed essay of 1,700 words is required. This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but is a requirement and MUST be submitted. Students who fail to submit the unassessed essay will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass).

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 28/02/2014

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD