Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Essay Assignment 1 x 3000 word essay | 50% |
| Semester Exam | 3 Hours Written exam 1 x 3 hour written exam | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit Essay Assignemnt Resubmit missing or failed essay (1 x 3000 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Exam | 3 Hours Resit Written Exam Resit missed or failed written exam (1 x 3 hour exam) | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Locate and discuss the 19C American novel in its cultural, historical and political contexts;
2. Employ appropriate critical/theoretical approaches to the study of the 19C American novel;
3. Write confidently and fluently about the texts on the module in a focused and conceptually nuanced manner;
4. Demonstrate enhanced skills of independent thought and research.
Aims
This module provides students with the opportunity to study major works of American fiction from the nineteenth century.
Brief description
The module seeks to establish a thorough understanding of the core literary texts and of the historical context in which they were written. Building on the study of literature and literary analysis in Part One, the module encourages students to develop and hone the skills needed to critique the nineteenth-century American novel in particular, and literature in general.
Content
Weeks 1&2: “Somewhere between the real world and fairy-land”: Dramatising the Past and the Present in the Romance;
Weeks 3&4: “You must have plenty of sea-room to tell the truth in”: Moby-Dick and the Expansive Imagination.
Weeks 5&6: Sentimental Fiction, Abolitionism, and the Politics of Emotion.
Week 7: The Meanings of Freedom: the South Before and After the Civil War
Week 8: The Psychology of War
Week 9: “The Courageous Soul that Dares and Defies”: The Awakening and the Subversive Imaginations of Women.
Week 10: Module conclusion
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | N/A |
| Communication | Written communication in the form of essays, and oral communication through group discussions and presentations. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Through independent reading and research and time management. Expression and use of language. |
| Information Technology | Use of digital resources for research and PowerPoint for presentations. Use of electronic resources, databases of digitized newspapers and periodicals |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Critical self-reflection, and the development of transferable communication and research skills. |
| Problem solving | Developing evaluative analysis and critical skills and by formulating and conducting a detailed argument. |
| Research skills | By relating literary texts to historical contexts and by synthesizing information in an evaluative argument. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Detailed critical/theoretical analysis of literary texts and evaluation of broad intellectual concepts. |
| Team work | Play an active part in group activities in the seminars and through group presentations. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6