ENGL45830: Theory and History of the Novel

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• To build upon analytical and investigative skills developed at undergraduate level;
• To study the emergence and evolution of the novel form across the full historical range;
• To contextualise the novel as genre against the key theoretical interventions that have influenced its reception and understanding in the modern period;

• This module offers an advanced survey of the novel form, focusing on its various transformations across periods and in different literary cultures. In the period since the beginning of the 18th century, the main focus will be on novels in English, balanced against increasing attention to the broader European context in earlier periods.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will acquire:
• A thorough knowledge of the main developments in the history of the novel;
• An understanding of the key theoretical interventions on the novel as genre;
• An understanding of the varying linguistic, literary, cultural, and socio-historical contexts in which literature is produced.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• advanced critical skills in the close reading and analysis of literary texts;
• an ability to demonstrate advanced knowledge of a chosen field of literary studies;
• an ability to offer advanced analysis of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature;
• an ability to articulate and substantiate at a high level an imaginative response to literature;
• an ability to demonstrate an advanced understanding of
• the cultural, intellectual, socio-political and linguistic contexts of literature;
• an ability to articulate an advanced knowledge and understanding of conceptual or theoretical literary material;
• an advanced command of a broad range of vocabulary and critical literary terminology.

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an advanced ability to analyze critically;
• an advanced ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in structured and systematic ways;
• an advanced ability to interpret complex information of diverse kinds through the distinctive skills derived from the subject;
• expertise in conventions of scholarly presentation and bibliographical skills;
• an independence of thought and judgement, and ability to assess acutely the critical ideas of others;
• sophisticated skills in critical reasoning; an advanced ability to handle information and argument critically;
• a competence in information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access;
• professional organisation and time-management skills.

• Seminars will encourage peer-group discussion and a collective, interactive responsiveness to the texts under discussion. They will also enable students to think critically and to read fiction and non-fiction with a close attention to the formal and aesthetic dimensions of literary writing.
• Seminars will also encourage the development of effective oral communication skills.
• Coursework: assessed essays will allow an opportunity for detailed, independent study and reflection, demonstrating an awareness of the ongoing critical commentary surrounding the texts under consideration thereby enriching their subject-specific knowledge.
• Written feedback provided after the first assessed essay will allow students to reflect upon the comments of examiners, stimulating reflection on how to improve the rhetorical persuasiveness and subject-specific knowledge exhibited in their second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning students an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor.

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