Module Identifier EN35220  
Module Title NARRATION AND INNOVATION: PROSE FICTIONS 1660-1800  
Academic Year 2000/2001  
Co-ordinator Dr Sarah Prescott  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours 10 x 2 hrs  
Assessment Continuous assessment   2 essays (2,500 words each)   100%  
  Resit assessment   Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements.    

Brief description
This module aims to question the traditional notion of the novel as a seamless progression from romance to realism and to emphasise instead the complex interrelation of different genres and cultural influences on the novel form. It explores the different ways in which writers experimented with, manipulated and subverted narrative forms and expectations and will address issues of gender, politics, sexuality, social morality and cultural change throughout the period, by considering rogue narratives, romances, religion, fictional biography, sentiment and sensibility, gender and authorship, politics, theories of narrative and narrative experimentation.
The period from 1660 to 1800 is crucial for an understanding of the development of the novel as the dominant literary form in British culture. In this module, we will explore the different ways in which Restoration and eighteenth-century writers experimented with, manipulated and subverted narrative forms and expectations as well as paying attention to shifting generic and cultural influences on the novel form. We will be reading a range of prose fictions from the period - from romances, rogue narratives and religious allegories to courtship novels, oriental narratives and sentimental fiction - as well as investigating contemporary debates concerning the theory of narrative, the social function of novels and the growing anxieties about the dangers involved in reading fiction, especially for female readers. In addition to a consideration of the historical dimension of genre, the module will address issues of gender, politics, orientalism, sexuality, social morality and cultural change throughout the period under investigation. The module is divided into two sections and charts the varied approaches to fictional narrative from 1660-1740 and then from 1740-1800. Three to four texts from each section will be chosen to study in detail. The module will be taught in two hour weekly seminars, which will be introduced by seminar papers.