EN245 Syllabus (Updated 16/10/17)

EN245 syllabus (updated 16/10/17) EN245 The English Nineteenth-Century Novel

Tutor: Dr Jen Baker (H518) Office Hours: Monday 3 – 4pm and Thursday 3 – 4pm

Texts to Purchase: Below I am specifying the editions I will be using: I strongly recommend those editions because of the quality of editing and accompanying critical materials in that edition, and it keeps the class flowing if we are all on “the same page”. However, I appreciate that many of you may already own or have purchased some of the texts/different editions, or for reasons of economy will prefer a cheaper edition. If so, please be ready with page numbers of chapters, your chosen quotes, etc, to help find corresponding pages quickly.

The “Primary Texts” for week 1 will be available to collect from the departmental office. If you find yourself unable to collect before class, please read them online (links on module pages and emailed), make notes and then grab a hard copy when you can. Those for week 2 will be handed out asap, and for week 10 will be given out in due course.

Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Jane Austen, Persuasion (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Anthony Trollope, Cousin Henry (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (Vintage, 2015) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Charlotte Brontë, Villette (Oxford World Classics, 2008) Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oxford World Classics, 2006 or 2008) Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1874) – any unabridged edition Henry James, What Maisie Knew (Oxford World Classics, 2008 or 2009) H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (Oxford World Classics, 2017) EN245 syllabus (updated 16/10/17) Term One – The C19th Novel: Form and Context Week Primary Text(s) Compulsory Secondary Reading 1. What Makes the Novel, novel? Elizabeth Inchbald, ‘Novel Writing’ (1807) The Victorian Novel: A Guide to Contemporaneous Criticism Edward Bulwer-Lytton, ‘On Art in Fiction’ Criticism (1838) edited by Francis O'Gorman (Blackwell, W.G. Fraser, ‘New Novels’ (1849) 2002) G.H. Lewes, ‘Criticism in Relation to Novels’ (1865) Besant and James, ‘The Art of Fiction’ (1884) Vernon Lee, ‘A Dialogue on Novels’ (1885)

2. Is the Novel, novel? The modern F.R. Leavis, ‘The Great Tradition’ (1948) and post-modern lens. Roland Barthes, ‘The Reality Effect’ (1968) Heather Love, ‘Close But Not Deep: Mikhail Bakhtin, ‘Discourse in the Novel’ Literary Ethics and the Descriptive (1981) Turn’ Rita Felski, ‘Context Stinks’ (2011) Fleissner, ‘Is Feminism a Historicism?’

3. The Historical Novel: Fact or Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (1800) John Bowen, ‘The Historical Novel’ Fiction? 4. Silly Lady Novelists? Jane Austen, Persuasion (1817) Jane Austen, ‘Plan of a Novel’ (1816). George Eliot, ‘Silly Novels by Silly Lady Novelists’ (1856). 5. The Reality of Social Realism Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854-5) Marx readings from the ‘German Ideology’. Caroline Levine (Victorian Realism) 6. NO CLASS READING WEEK 7. Empires of Dirt Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864-5) Primary Sources on the River Thames

8. The Evolution of Dirt Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864-5) Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859) 9. The Inheritance of Marriage Anthony Trollope, Cousin Henry (1879) Mona Caird, ‘Marriage’ (1888)

10. The Short Story: A Contrast Charles Dickens, ‘The Story of the Goblins Who 'The British Short Story', The Bookman Stole a Sexton’ (1838) (1899) EN245 syllabus (updated 16/10/17) C.L. Pirkiss, ‘The Murder at Troyte’s Hill’ (1894) Paul March-Russell, 'The Short Story in Joseph Conrad, ‘An Outpost of Progress’ (1897) England'

Term Two – The C19th Novel: Outsiders and Others

Week Primary Text(s) Suggested Secondary Reading 1. The Bleak Idyll Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd TBC (see module page) (1874)

2. Science and/of the Novel George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) William Whewell, ‘Aphorisms Concerning the Language of Science’

3. The Foreign George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Primary Sources on the ‘Victorian Jew’ 4. Haunted Femininity Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) Extracts from earlier Gothic texts

5. Spectral Femininity Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘The Character in the Veil’ WEEK 6: READING WEEK NO CLASS 7: Queering the Gothic Aesthetic Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Ardel Thomas, ‘Queer Victorian Gothic’ (2012) 8: The Curious Case of the Child Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Nina Auerbach, ‘Alice and Wonderland (1874) Wonderland: A Curious Child’ (1973)

9: Dark Curiosities Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) Henry James, ‘Critical Preface to Maisie’ (1909) 10: Darkest Present-Futures H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898) Fyfe – ‘How will the World End’? (1900)