Module Identifier EN33420  
Module Title DEMONS, DEGENERATES AND NEW WOMEN: FIN DE SIECLE FICTIONS  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Dr D Kevin Mills  
Semester Semester 1  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   10 x 2 hour seminar workshops  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment One essay of 2,500 words60%
Semester Assessment Oral presentation40%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves failure in the essay assignment, a new topic must be selected. In the event of failure in the oral presentation element, a 15 minute written script on a new topic, written as if for delivery, with accompanying visual aids to be submitted. 

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
Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst (eds.) (2000) The Fin de Siecle Oxford: Oxford University Press 0198742797
Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Penguin Popular Classics 0140620516
Bram Stoker Dracula Oxford World's Classics 0192833863
Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed.) (2001) A New Woman Reader Broadview Press 1551112957
Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure Oxford World's Classics 0192802615
** Recommended Consultation
John Stokes (1989) In the Nineties Harvester Wheatsheaf
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
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