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 examine how nineteenth and twentieth century writers have reflected on ‘the condition of England’ through their writing on its landscape, and, more broadly: to enable students to think in terms which are, at once, literary, historical and geographical;
• To place such writing in the context of an intellectual and social history; to provide a point of transition between modules in nineteenth and twentieth century literature.
• To further develop student’s close reading skills - close textual analysis will be at the heart of the course – but also to encourage wide-ranging thinking which relates literary texts to a wider field of knowledge.

Content

• In 1843, Thomas Carlyle, writing in an era of rapid industrialization and economic growth, where the ground of life seemed to be shifting under people’s feet, described ‘the condition of England … as one of the most ominous, and … one of the strangest, ever seen in this world…’ And yet the landscape of this world appeared to cry out for investigation by writers, even if ‘what it all meant’ was not necessarily clear. This module will itself explore these explorations of England’s geographical, social and political landscape from the mid-nineteenth century onwards towards the present: we will think about novelists, poets, social critics, but also journalists, politicians, and travel writers as they observe this changing world. Writers for consideration will typically include Dickens, Ruskin, Hardy, Jefferies, Auden, Forster, Edward Thomas, Orwell, T.S. Eliot, Edward Upward, as well as more contemporary figures such as Roy Fisher, Iain Sinclair and Jonathan Coe. These meditations use different literary forms, but their thinking remains centred around the desire to move between the details of the world they observe to find an overarching perspective on what it says about ‘the condition of England’.

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