Module ENGL2551: LANDSCAPE AND 'THE CONDITION-OF-ENGLAND' (SPECIAL TOPIC)

Department: English Studies

ENGL2551: LANDSCAPE AND 'THE CONDITION-OF-ENGLAND' (SPECIAL TOPIC)

Prerequisites

• Any Single or Joint Honours finalist student wishing to take this Special Topic module must have satisfactorily completed the required number of core modules. Combined Honours and Outside Honours students must have satisfactorily completed either two Level 1 core introductory modules, or at least one Level 1 core module and one further lecture based module in English at Level 2

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• to provide a transition between modules in nineteenth and twentieth century literature and in so doing to enhance students' understanding of the meanings ascribed to 'Victorian' and 'Modernist' writing.
• to introduce study of how late nineteenth and early twentieth century writers reflected on 'the Condition of England' through their writing on its landscape. This will involve the examination of both literary traditions and aspects of social and intellectual history, whilst close textual analysis will be at the heart of the course.
• to give a slightly different kind of approach to some already existing modules by using a thematic rather than author-centred approach and by dealing with a range of literary genres (the novel, poetry, travel writing etc) placed in a changing historical context.

Content

• This course describes a series of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century attempts to gauge the present cultural and political 'Condition-of-England' through the interpretation of its changing - urbanising, industrialising - landscape. The course moves from a grounding in the writing of key Victorian figures such as John Ruskin and Charles Dickens, before focusing on a series of texts by various central authors, including Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, E. M. Forster, Edward Thomas and T.S. Eliot. Their meditations use different literary forms, each with their own boundaries and audiences, but their thinking remains centred around the desire to move between the details of the landscape and an overarching perspective on the state of the nation.

Learning Outcomes

• On completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate: detailed knowledge of the varieties of writing on landscape in the period; insight into investigations of national identity in these texts; appreciation of significant historical, social, political and cultural contexts; awareness of relevant critical and analytical frameworks.

• Students' analytic, interpretive, critical and persuasive skills will be developed.

• Students on this course will be expected to exhibit independent thought and judgement in their essays. Critical reasoning, an ability to offer cogent arguments, as well as word-processing, time-management, electronic data access and information organizational skills, are all required for this module.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module is taught through seminars, which encourage collective responsiveness through interactive discussion as well as the development of independent, individual thought.
• The consultation session with the seminar leader before the first essay allows for further, guided exploration of individual ideas and arguments.
• Assessed essays give students the opportunity for focused independent study, permitting them to explore their own ideas and insights as well as demonstrating a requisite knowledge of the subject.
• The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader a list of points relevant to the essay and receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University