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English and Comparative Literary Studies

2021-22

This information is relevant for those who took the module 2021-22 with Dr Jen Baker.

Teaching: Seminars per week: 1 (@1.30 hrs).
Lectures: There is one introductory lecture and five mandatory lectures spread across the year. Lectures for 2021/22 will be available on the Module's Warwick Stream channel Link opens in a new window.

Total Contact Hours: 30
Module Duration: 2 terms (18 weeks)

Objectives:

This module explores the rise of the novel in the particular context of nineteenth-century Britain, responding to rapid social change and the correspondingly shifting understandings of class, gender, sexuality, nation and culture. The module considers the development of the novel form in relation to style, its publication context, and its supposed purpose, and its engagement with social and political topics such as masculinity, the new woman, sexuality, childhood, landscapes, Empire and Nation, dialogues between image and text, evolution, and illness. Novelists and texts from the popular to the literary, from the canonical to those often overlooked, are studied.

Assessment

Deadlines will be confirmed on your personal tabula.
You can see the options for assessments 2021-22 here.

Indicative Syllabus

In 2021-22 we are studying C19th sources on "the Novel"; Maria Edgeworth Belinda; Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; Elizabeth Gaskell Mary Barton, Charlotte Bronte Villette; Charles Kingsley The Water Babies; Thomas Hardy Far From the Madding Crowd; H. Rider Haggard, She; George Gissing New Grub Street; H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds.These may change in other years.

Syllabus

The primary novels to buy or source online are listed hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO MY EDITION NOTES.

Full syllabus click here

I have already started populating the further recommended reading and materials on the “Reading Material” subpage for wider reading and research, but will continually update this.

Content Note

Across the texts on this module, you will repeatedly come across (often casual) racist, xenophobic, sexist, classist slurs and attitudes. So too, allusions to potentially disturbing content such as sexual violence, violence (sometimes fatal) to others, animal cruelty, distressing scenes of death, are common. I want you to feel comfortable in talking to me about this one-on-one or in class. These are integral aspects of many texts and will need to be engaged with as part of our critical discourse - although you may find sometimes these aspects are not discussed in class unless you as students want to raise them.

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SUGGESTED PREPATORY READINGS

The six chapters/articles I am offering below as further suggestions for the Summer will, without a doubt, help your understanding of some of the key issues and contexts we will discuss, and some of the different approaches we will take, across the module, and could be used at any time of the year if you don’t get a chance to read them in the coming summer months.

Some will be an easy read and some of the pieces you might find quite challenging – that’s okay, they *are* challenging and are meant to be. Take your time and makes notes.

  1. Terry Eagleton, “What is a Novel” from his monograph The English Novel: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

  2. Edward Said, “Chapter Two: Consolidated Vision (I) Narrative and Social Space” from his monograph Culture and Imperialism, Chatto and Windus, 1994.

  3. Ronjaunee Chatterjee, et al. “Introduction: Undisciplining Victorian Studies.”

  4. David Sweeney Coombes, “Introduction” from his monograph Reading with the Senses in Victorian Literature and ScienceUniversity of Virginia Press, 2019.

  5. Joanne Shattock, “The Publishing Industry” in The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 3: The Nineteenth-Century Novel 1820-1880, ed. John Kucich, and Jenny Bourne Taylor (Oxford, 2011; pubd online Mar. 2015), pp.3-21.

  6. Deborah Wynne, “Readers and Reading Practices” in The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 3: The Nineteenth-Century Novel 1820-1880, ed. John Kucich, and Jenny Bourne Taylor (Oxford, 2011; pubd online Mar. 2015), pp.22-36.

You can also dip in and out of Companions and Handbooks such as the Oxford History of the English Novel Vol 2 (1750-1820) and Vol 3 (1820-1880) and the Oxford Handbook to the Victorian Novel which will help you contextualise genres and themes


Places to obtain texts:

The library has many of our texts in print or online and the correct editions will be listed on Talis Aspire and in the Reading Guidance documents. Remember that not every edition in the library will be the one we need – ensure you read any notes added to Talis and below about which edition to get.

Amazon isn’t the only place to get cheaper second-hand books. You can try second-hand book stores/charity shops or online book sellers, such as:

World of Books https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb

Oxfam Books https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/books/category/books

BetterWorldBooks https://www.betterworldbooks.com/

 

You can also compare prices on this website: http://www.booksprice.co.uk/

Our Primary Materials will be detailed from the beginning of August, and all my wider reading recommendations for your own research and interests is available via the Reading Materials tab above.

FULL SYLLABUS

Click hereLink opens in a new window for document detailing which editions of all primary novels to buy/source online for this module.

TERM ONE

 Printable pdf of this outlineLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

WEEK ONE

  1. Watch parts 1 and 2 of the Introductory lectureLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window on Stream channel before class.
  2. Literature and The Novel in C19th Thought: Part 1 - Read and annotate the pack of c19th articles and essays. You may annotate directly on the word doc versionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, the pdf versionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, or you may print the pdf and annotate by hand, or make notes separately on paper/online. Your choice, but bring the essays and annotations to class in either e- or hardcopy.
    There are a few printed versions of the pack in the plastic hoppers outside my office (H519) [first come, first served]

WEEK TWO

  1. Guidance notes and link to first serial Instalment of David Copperfield No.1, May 1849Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Chapters I-III)
    This includes making notes on the front wrapper, the illustrations, and the advertisements front and back.

You will need to have access to this in class in some form. If you wish to have it in hardcopy, I recommend this versionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, of which 5 copies are also available in the library as 3 Day loans, and another 5-7 different editions on open loan. Please do not read ahead of the prescribed instalments or you are missing a key point of the exercise.
You will still need to look at the online version for the paratexts.

2. Watch my Lecture on Dialogues Between Image and Text on StreamLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window before class. PDF hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

3. Required Critical Material (have these articles/your notes available in class):

Gérard Genette, "IntroductionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window" from Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. No. 20. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Rob Allen, ""Pause You Who Read This": Disruption and the Victorian Serial NovelLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window." Serialization in Popular Culture (ed. Rob Allen and Thijs van den Berg). Routledge, 2014. 45-58.

Emily Steinlight, "" Anti-Bleak House": Advertising and the Victorian novelLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window." Narrative 14.2 (2006): 132-162.

Peter Wagner, "The Nineteenth-century Illustrated Novel" Handbook of Intermediality, edited by Gabriele Rippl. De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 378-400.

For David Copperfield, if you want to do any further secondary reading, try the following, but remember these can involve plot spoilers: Robert E. Lougy, “Dickens and the Wolf Man: Childhood Memory and Fantasy in ‘David Copperfield’” PMLA, 124:2 (2009), pp. 406 – 420 [available through library articles catalogue]

WEEK THREE

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.2, June 1849Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [chapters IV-VI]
    [note:     archive.org has better viewing options except I realise that, apart from the cover, the instalment is back to front...so you have to go to the end and work backwards...]
    - Once you have read the text, go back and have a scan through the advertisements, see if anything jumps out, and remember to do close-readings of the illustrations as well as the text.
  2. Maria Edgeworth Belinda (1801), vol. i (chapters I-XII) and paratexts outlined in Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

No required critical reading this week - for suggestions, see the section on Edgeworth under the "Further Reading Material" tab. Suggested Further Reading for David Copperfield: John Manning, “III. Education through Private Enterprise” from the book Dickens on Education, University of Toronto Press 1959.

WEEK FOUR

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.3, July 1849 (chapters VII-IX)
    Have a scan through the advertisements on either via archive.org Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (better quality but back to front) or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Maria Edgeworth Belinda (1801), vol. ii and iii (chapters XIII "Sortes Virgilianae" to the end) and the "Original Sketch" - see Reading Guidance
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate Edward Said, i. Narrative and Social Space and ii. Jane Austen and EmpireLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window from Culture and Imperialism (1993) - how can we relate Said's various arguments and examples to both Edgeworth's novel and to David Copperfield?

Further suggested reading for David Copperfield: I recommend Dickens own account of his childhood labour in John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, 1872), pp.28-50. Also Oliver S. Buckton, "The Reader Whom I Love": Homoerotic Secrets in "David Copperfield." ELH 64.1 (1997): 189-222.

WEEK FIVE

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.4, August 1849 (chapters X - XII)
    See adverts and illustrations on Archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Walter Scott Ivanhoe (1819/1830) vol.i (chs. I-XXIII) and Paratexts as outlined in Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Watch my Lecture on "Nation and Empire: Past, Present, FutureLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window" on Stream. PDF hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

No required critical reading this week - for suggestions, see the section on Scott under the "Further Reading Material" tab - I particularly recommend Brian Hamnett, “Introduction: The Historical Novel in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Representations of Reality in History and Fiction”.

Suggested reading for David Copperfield: I recommend Dickens own account of his childhood labour in John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, 1872), pp.28-50.

READING WEEK

WEEK SEVEN

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.5, September 1849 (chapters XIII - XV).
    See adverts and this week pay particularly close attention to the illustrations via Archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Walter Scott Ivanhoe (1819/1830) vol.ii (chs. XXIV-End)
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate IntroductionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window from Heidi Kaufman, English Origins, Jewish Discourse, and the Nineteenth-century British Novel: Reflections on a Nested NationLink opens in a new window. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009. pp.1-26.

Suggested reading for David Copperfield: Beth. F. Herst, "David Copperfield and the Emergence of the Homeless Hero" in The Hero’s Journey, ed. Harold Bloom (Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp.39-49 and Franco Moretti, Atlas of the European Novel, 1800-1900 (London: Verso, 1999), pp. 12-29.

WEEK EIGHT

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.6, October 1849 (chapters XVI - XVIII)
    See adverts and illustrations on Archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848), vol.i (ch.I-XVII) - ensure to read the prefaces/epigraphs etc. See Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    This selection ofLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window Gaskell's letters, reviews of the book, contemporary context, illustrations.

Suggested further reading for Mary Barton: Friedrich Engels, ‘The Great Towns’ in The Condition of the Working Class in England [1845], trans. By Florence Kelly Wischnewetzky. New York: John W. Lovell Co, 1887, pp.17-51. And see the Further Reading Material tab.

Suggested reading for David Copperfield: Julia F. Saville, "Eccentricity as Englishness in "David Copperfield"." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 42.4 (2002): 781-797, and David Thiele, "The "transcendent and immortal... HEEP!": Class Consciousness, Narrative Authority, and the Gothic in David Copperfield." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 42.3 (2000): 201-222.

WEEK NINE

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.7, November 1849 (chapter XIX - XXI)
    See advertisements and illustrations at Archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [story is back to front] or on UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton A Tale of Manchester Life (1848), vol.ii (ch.XVIII-End)
  3. Required Critical Reading: Read and annotate Caroline Levine, “Victorian RealismLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.” The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel, edited by Deirdre David, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 84–106.

Suggested further reading for David Copperfield: Clare Pettitt, "Peggotty’s Work-Box: Victorian Souvenirs and Material Memory." Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net, 53 (2009) and Patricia Poussa, "Dickens as sociolinguist: dialect in David Copperfield." Writing in nonstandard English, eds. Gunnel Melchers, Irma Taavitsainen, Päivi Pahta (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1999), pp.27-44.

WEEK TEN

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.8, December 1849 (chapters XXII - XXIV)
    Advertisements and illustrations via Archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) vol. i (chs. I-XV) and Charlotte's letter (appendix A) - see Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate extract from Athena Vrettos' introduction Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowto Somatic Fictions: Imagining illness in Victorian culture. Stanford University Press, 1995.
  4. Watch my Lecture on The Gothic and Sensation on Stream

Suggested reading for David Copperfield: Rodas, Julia Miele. "Tiny Tim, Blind Bertha, and the Resistance of Miss Mowcher: Charles Dickens and the Uses of Disability." Dickens Studies Annual (2004): 51-97.

TERM TWO

Printable PDF of this outlineLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Week One

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No. 9, January 1850 [Chapters XXV-XXVII]
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) vol.ii and iii [chapter XVI- End] and appendices in Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "The Character in the Veil: Imagery of the Surface in the Gothic NovelLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window." PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 96.2 (1981): 255-270.
  4. Anything you missed last term (Gothic lecture, Vrettos Intro to Somatic Fictions)

Week Two

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.10, Feb 1850 [Chapters XXVIII- XXXI]
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Charles Kingsley, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863) - see Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate extracts from Darwin's On the Origin of Species Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window(1859) - I advise thinking about the literal and metaphorical implications for many of the texts we have and will read, as well as Kingsley's.
  4. Watch my Lecture on "The Child and the Novel" on Stream

Week Three

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.11, March 1850 [Chapters XXXII- XXXIV]
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) Vol.I [Preface and Ch. I-XXX] - see Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate Hardy “The Dorset Farmer LabourerLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window” (1884)
  4. Watch Claire Starkey's talk on rebranding the rural working classLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [15mins] - take notes of key points.

Week Four

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.12, April 1850 [Chapters XXXV - XXXVII]
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) Vol.II [XXXI “Blame-Fury” - End]
  3. Watch my lecture on Gender Relations and/in the C19th NovelLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window on Stream

No required critical reading this week - for suggestions, see the section on Hardy in Further Reading Material or the optional comparative work in the Reading Guidance.

Week Five

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.13, May 1850 [Chapters XXXVIII - XL]
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure (1887) -see Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate extracts from Rebecca Stott, "Scaping the body: Of cannibal mothers and colonial landscapesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window." The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2002. 150-166.

Further reading: I strongly recommend reading atrick Brantlinger "Imperial GothicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window" in Victorian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, edited by Andrew Smith and Bill Hughes. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. [The hyperlinked is a set of extracts]

READING WEEK

Week Seven

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.14, June, 1850
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891) [chapters I-XX, c.240pp] - see Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

  3. Required Critical Reading:
    George Gissing, “The Place of Realism in FictionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window” (1895) plus brief quote on Dickens.

Week Eight

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.15, July 1850
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891) [chapters XXI – End]
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate Mona Caird, extract from “MarriageLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window” (1888)

Week Nine

  1. Serial Instalment of David Copperfield, No.16, Aug 1850
    And paratexts on either archive.orgLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window [back to front] or UVicLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
  2. H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898) c.160pp. See Reading GuidanceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read/annotate Wells' essay "On ExtinctionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window" (1893) and Herbert Fyfe's essay "How Will the World EndLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window?" (1900)
  4. Watch my lecture on Science and the NovelLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window on Stream

Week Ten

  1. Final serial Instalments of David Copperfield & paratexts, No.17, Sept 1850Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and No.18, Oct 1850Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, and No.19-20 Nov, 1850 Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (or UVic no. 17, UVic no.18, UVic no.19-20)
    Plus the 1850 and 1869 Prefaces to the Novel Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
    -     Return to Caroline Levine "Victorian Realism" and Edward Said extracts from "Culture and Imperialism" (or at least your notes from them) and consider the instalments you read in lights of these.
  2. Literature and The Novel in C19th Thought: Part 2
    Read and annotate the pack of articles and essays from the 2nd half C19th.
    You may annotate directly on the word doc versionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, the pdf versionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, or you you may print the pdf and annotate by hand, or make notes separately on paper/online. Your choice, but bring the essays and annotations to class in some form.
  3. Required Critical Reading:
    Read and annotate Brian Cheadle, "What is David CopperfieldLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window?." Essays in Criticism 69.1 (2019): 51-73.

Suggested further reading, Anna Vaninskaya, "The Novel, its Critics, and the University: a New BeginningLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window?" in The Oxford Handbook of the Victorian Novel edited by Lisa Rodensky, 2013.