ENG-10028 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2020/21

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2020/21

Narrative fiction has always been central to our understanding of ourselves and the way we engage with others. The novel in particular has developed over the last four centuries in a number of ways: from producing a critical commentary on the social and political climate of a period, to providing access to the innermost thoughts of an individual. This module will introduce students to the critical study and evaluation of narrative fiction. It will cover a range of authors from different periods and focus on the historical development of fiction from the 'birth' of the novel in the early eighteenth century to the present. It will also identify the formal and aesthetic characteristics of a number of narrative modes such as realism, modernism and postmodernism. Writers covered on the module might include Daniel Defoe, Elizabeth Gaskell, Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham. There will also be a range of extracts from relevant literary and narrative theory.
PRIMARY READING
Course Texts (for purchase):
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722), Norton Critical Edition, ed. Albert J. Rivero (New York: Norton, 2004)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis (1864), Oxford World Classics, ed. Heather Glen (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925), Oxford World Classics, ed. David Bradshaw (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998) (London: Fourth Estate/Picador)
The critical essays that you are required to read will be provided for you in two photocopied reading packs, and most of the readings have been digitised and mounted on Blackboard.

LECTURE AND TUTORIAL SCHEDULE, AND CORE READING
1. Lecture: Introduction - Dr. Nick Bentley
Reading: David Amigoni, extract from The English Novel and Prose
Narrative; 'Narrative' in Bennett and Royle's Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, pp. 54-62
Tutorial: No tutorial in week 1
2. Lecture: Birth of the Novel - Dr. Nick Seager
Reading: Ian Watt, extracts from The Rise of the Novel
Tutorial: Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722)
3. Lecture: Moll Flanders - Dr. Nick Seager
Reading: Dorothy van Ghent, 'On Moll Flanders'; Wayne C. Booth, extract from The Rhetoric of Fiction
Tutorial: Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722)
4. Lecture: Narratology: Authors, Narrators and Plot - Dr. Nick Bentley
Reading: 'The Author' and 'Character' in Bennett and Royle's Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, pp. 19-27/63-70
Tutorial: Analysis of novel extracts (provided in photocopy) and bibliographic exercise
5. Lecture: Classic Realism - Dr Mariangela Palladino
Reading: Roland Barthes, 'The Reality Effect'
Tutorial: Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis (1864)

6. Lecture: Cousin Phillis - Dr Mariangela Palladino
Reading: Mikhail Bakhtin, 'Discourse in the Novel';
Tutorial: Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis (1864)
7. Reading Week - No Lecture or Tutorial
Reading: Independent reading - catching up and reading ahead
8. Lecture: Modernism - Dr. Nick Bentley
Reading: Virginia Woolf, 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown'
Tutorial: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)
9. Lecture: Mrs Dalloway - Dr. Nick Seager
Reading: Raymond Williams, 'Modernism and the Metropolis'; Georg Lukacs, 'The Ideology of Modernism'
Tutorial: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)
10. Lecture: Postmodernism - Dr. Nick Bentley
Reading: Roland Barthes, 'The Death of the Author'
Tutorial: Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998)
11. Lecture: The Hours - Dr. Mariangela Palladino
Reading: Linda Hutcheon, 'Historiographic Metafiction'
Tutorial: Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998); bibliographic exercise
12. Revision and individual consultation - NO LECTURE OR TUTORIAL

To familiarize students with the distinctive characteristics of narrative fiction.
To enable students to carry out close analysis of a range of fiction by a number of authors from different historical periods.
To equip students with a knowledge of key literary concepts and terminology with respect to narrative fiction.
To provide students with a knowledge of the historical development of narrative fiction from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the present.
To familiarize students with key modes of writing within narrative fiction such as realism, modernism and postmodernism.
To provide students with an awareness of the relationship between socio-historical contexts and literary meaning in narrative fiction.

Intended Learning Outcomes

identify the distinctive features of a range of narrative modes such as realism, modernism and postmodernism: 2
engage in close textual analysis of a range of styles of narrative fiction by different authors in terms of form, meaning and discourse: 1,2
articulate key concepts in critical and narrative theory and relate these to literary texts: 2
demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between socio-historical contexts and the production of meaning in narrative fiction: 2
show a knowledge of the relationship between the concepts of authors, narrators, characters and readers in narrative fiction: 1,2
demonstrate a sensitivity to the complexity of literary language and critical discourse: 1,2
demonstrate an ability to use consistent and accurate bibliographic references in written work: 1,2
demonstrate a knowledge of the historical development of narrative fiction: 2

Study hours

lectures (11 hours)
small group classes (11 hours)
seminar preparation and private study (73 hours)
essay writing and preparation (44 hours)
formative exercise preparation and writing (10 hours)
essay feedback (1 hour)

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment