Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
---|---|---|---|
4313157 Advanced English Studies | OT | 0 | 1 |
This is an obligatory subject for the Literature and Culture track of the UAB's Official Master's Degree in Advanced English Studies. Students admitted onto the MA will therefore have fulfilled the initial requirements.
This course aims to illustrate how literary theory is applied to the nineteenth-century novel, and specifically how theory engages with the controversial notion of adultery and marriage, issues of great concern to Victorian society.
In addition, this year the course also focuses on childhood.
The course also aims to provide a fuller understanding of the nineteenth-century novel, for two main reasons. First, for its focus on the modern institutions of life which theory has taken a deep interest in, such as romance, marriage, the family or the nation-state; second, the nineteenth-century novel not only represents one of the so-called "golden ages" of English literature, but it is also the genre that all critical schools have arguably felt the need to analyse in particular depth (as, indeed, is the C19 as a historical period), plausibly because of the fundamental role that this genre and this century play in the understanding of contemporary literature.
The course comprises three units. Students must obtain and read the editions indicated.
Part one: Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (Norton Critical Edition, ed. Jerome H. Buckley).
Part two: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (Norton Critical Edition, ed. Carole T. Christ).
Part three: Children’s literature. During the first few weeks of the semester, students will choose an appropriate text.
1 ECTS credit = 25 teaching hours > 9 credits = 225 hours.
The approach is basically practical, focussing on how approaches such as formalism, Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis (to name only a few schools) have studied and discussed fiction, and how-in light of this-readings of both fiction and critical material are empowered.
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
See description below | 39 | 1.56 | 2, 1, 3, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10, 5 |
Type: Supervised | |||
See description below | 27.75 | 1.11 | 2, 1, 4, 7, 10, 9, 5 |
Type: Autonomous | |||
See description below | 86.25 | 3.45 | 2, 1, 3, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10, 8, 5 |
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
General Requirements:
1. To read thoroughly, methodically and critically.
2. To have a solid working knowledge of the major ambits of literary theory and their practical application to literary criticism.
3. For the works studied, to have a grasp of the novels' reception from their date of publication to the present day.
4. To show sufficient knowledge of the relevant social and historical context.
5. To be familiar with the life and works of the authors outside the text we are studying.
Specific Assessment Activities:
Reassessment:
Reassessment for this subject requires a content-synthesis test, for which the following conditions are applicable:
- The student must previously have submitted a minimum of two-thirds of the course-assessment items.
- The student must previously have obtained an average overall grade equal to or higher than 3.5.
- The student must previously have passed 75% of the subject’s assessment requirements.
- The maximum grade than can be obtained through re-assessment is 5.0.
Not assessed
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 50% of the assessment items.
Plagiarism:
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Class Participation & Class Presentation | 25% | 18 | 0.72 | 2, 1, 3, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10, 9, 8, 5 |
Course Paper | 50% | 36 | 1.44 | 2, 1, 3, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10, 9, 8, 5 |
Short assignments | 25% | 18 | 0.72 | 2, 1, 3, 4, 11, 6, 7, 10, 8, 5 |
(For primary texts to be read during the course, please see "Continguts")
It is impractical to provide a short bibliography that covers the major areas and controversies. Instead, here is a list of ten classic works essential for understanding the Victorian novel and context. All items are in the UAB Humanities Library.
In addition, a very useful starting point is the Cambridge Companion series, which is available online. In this respect, of particular initial relevance are the following: