Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Seminars / Tutorials | 20 Hours. 10 x 2 hour seminar workshops |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Oral presentation | 40% |
| Semester Assessment | One essay of 2,500 words | 60% |
| 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
_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. and 7. The New Woman Writing (i)
Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed.) A New Woman Reader (Broadview Press, 2001)
__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 List
Should Be PurchasedBram Stoker Dracula Oxford World's Classics Primo search Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed.) (2001) A New Woman Reader Broadview Press Primo search H. Rider Haggard She Oxford World's Classics Primo search Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray Penguin Popular Classics Primo search Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Penguin Popular Classics Primo search Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst (eds.) (2000) The Fin de Siecle Oxford: Oxford University Press Primo search Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure Oxford World's Classics Primo search Recommended Consultation
Bram Djikstra (1986) Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of feminine evil in fin de siecle culture Oxford UP Primo search Elaine Showalter (1992) Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture a the Fin de Siecle Virago Primo search John Stokes (1989) In the Nineties Harvester Wheatsheaf Primo search Joseph Bristow (1991) Empire Boys Harper Collins Primo search Lyn Pykett (ed) (1996) Reading Fin de Siecle Fictions Edward Arnold Primo search Patrick Brantlinger (1988) Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 Cornell University Press Primo search Sally Ledger and Scott McCracken (eds) (1995) Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siecle Cambridge UP Primo search
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6