Module Identifier |
EN33420 |
Module Title |
DEMONS, DEGENERATES AND NEW WOMEN: FIN DE SIECLE FICTIONS |
Academic Year |
2004/2005 |
Co-ordinator |
To Be Arranged |
Semester |
Semester 1 |
Course delivery |
Seminars / Tutorials | 20 Hours 10 x 2 hour seminar workshops |
Assessment |
Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
Semester Assessment | Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (2,500 words each) | 100% |
Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. | |
|
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. demonstrate a knowledge and critical understanding of the set texts;
2. locate the set texts in some of the contexts of their production;
3. explain and engage with relevant aspects of recent critical debates about the material
studied;
4. produce well organized, coherently argued and critically informed written work;
5. engage in coherent oral discussion of the material studied.
Brief description
This module explores some of the anxieties and preoccupations of late-nineteenth century culture through an examination of some of the best-selling romances and fantasies (She, Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) and 'high art' fiction (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jude the Obscure, the New Woman Writing) which fascinated and scandalised late Victorian readers.
Content
Seminar Programme
1. Introduction to the fin de siecle
Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst (eds), The Fin de Siecle (Oxford University Press, 2000)
2. The Dark places of the earth
Rider Haggard's She
3. Monstrous men and New Women
Bram Stoker's Dracula
4. Masculine Others (i)
R.L.Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
5. Masculine Others (ii)
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
6. The New Woman Writing (i)
Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed.) A New Woman Reader (Broadview Press, 2001)
7. The New Woman Writing (ii)
Menie Muriel Dowie's Gallia (Dent: Everyman)
8. The new sex science and the birth of psychoanalysis
Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst (eds) The Fin de Siecle (Oxford University Press, 2000)
9. Gender Trouble
Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure
10. The fin de siecle: some conclusions
Detailed bibliographies will be given out in class. You will find it useful to look at one or more of the books listed below before the course starts. Unless otherwise stated all the novels are published by both Penguin and Oxford World's Classics.
Reading Lists
Books
** Should Be Purchased
H. Rider Haggard She
Oxford World's Classics 0192835505
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray
Penguin Popular Classics 0140620338
Menie Muriel Dowie Gallia
Phoenix (The Everyman Library) 0460877194
Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed.) (2001) A New Woman Reader
Broadview Press 1551112957
Bram Stoker Dracula
Oxford World's Classics 0192833863
Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst (eds.) (2000) The Fin de Siecle
Oxford: Oxford University Press 0198742797
Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure
Oxford World's Classics 0192802615
Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Penguin Popular Classics 0140620516
** Recommended Consultation
Patrick Brantlinger (1988) Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914
Cornell University Press
Joseph Bristow (1991) Empire Boys
Harper Collins
Bram Djikstra (1986) Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of feminine evil in fin de siecle culture
Oxford UP
Sally Ledger and Scott McCracken (eds) (1995) Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siecle
Cambridge UP
John Stokes (1989) In the Nineties
Harvester Wheatsheaf
Lyn Pykett (ed) (1996) Reading Fin de Siecle Fictions
Edward Arnold
Elaine Showalter (1992) Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture a the Fin de Siecle
Virago
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6