Place and Self

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. 1. Discuss a selection of long form texts identifying their influence upon the development of literature in English.
2. 2. Identify and discuss key formal characteristics linked to the respective historical contexts.
3. 3. Analyse the representation of self and placec in relation to narrative technique, genre, and context.
4. 4. Understand the ways in which contemporary theoretical concepts can be applied to texts from the pre-1900 period.
5. 5. Devise and demonstrate strategies for constructing analytical arguments focusing on long texts.

The module looks at texts that are key to the development of literature in English and that feed into other modules that study texts influenced by these literary precursors. The module is designed to give students the time and space in which to study these difficult texts in detail, paying attention to context, genre, close reading and thematic connections. It is unique to other modules in that the number of texts studied is approximately half of the usual load, this is to give students the time to read texts that would usually be excluded from the curriculum due to length. The module focuses on the representation of self and place as a thread that draws these texts together, but is not intended to suggest a linear development; instead the module will approach this topic by positioning each text as a cultural /historical snapshot in ongoing narratives of literary constructions of identity.

* To provide students with knowledge and understanding of key texts from the English canon.
* To augment students' engagement with texts studied elsewhere on their course that appropriate, reference and reflect these texts.
* To enable students to demonstrate knowledge of key texts that future employers might expect an English / English & Creative Writing graduate to have encountered.

Session 1: WORKSHOP – Strategies for reading long texts
Module introduction, aims, objective and themes

Session 2: Place and Character in Paradise Lost (Book 4)
Reading Milton's Paradise Lost

Session 3: WORKSHOP – Form and Structure Paradise Lost (Book 6)
The English Epic and John Milton

Session 4: Narrative Strategies in Robinson Crusoe (extracts)
The Early English Novel and Daniel Defoe

Session 5: WORKSHOP – Crusoe's colonial endeavour
Crusoe in Context: Colonialism, Identity and Politics

Session 6: The Prelude as Autobiography (1805 version – Books 5 and 8)
The Lyrical Self and The Prelude

Session 7: WORKSHOP – Romanticism and Place in The Prelude (1805 version)
Touring the Sublime in The Prelude

Session 8: Narrative Strategies in Middlemarch (extracts)
he Realist Novel

Session 9: WORKSHOP – Place and Identity in Middlemarch
Narrating the Provincial

Session 10: Module roundup and assessment preparation
From Milton to Eliot

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 5