Admission requirements
It is strongly recommended that you have passed Literature 1A and Literature 2 (or equivalent) prior to taking this course.
Please note: BA English students have priority to take this course. If you would like to take this course as an elective, it is possible that you will not be able to take the course due to lack of space. If this is the case, you will be deregistered from the course.
Description
Literature 3B is a survey course covering developments in British poetry and prose fiction during the long eighteenth century. The literary works on the reading list will be read in relation to various aesthetic and historical contexts (such as Atlantic slavery and the French Revolution, as well as eighteenth-century attitudes to class and gender), and in the light of key concepts such as enlightenment, reason, decorum, the self, faith, the public sphere, sensibility and the imagination. Because the novel is such a dominant literary form in our own time, we will study in detail the eighteenth-century genesis and development of this genre. Other topics covered are stylistic and thematic developments, in particular the Gothic and various types of Romanticism.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will:
Have good general knowledge and understanding of the major stylistic, structural and thematic developments in eighteenth-century British literature.
Have a thorough understanding of key eighteenth-century literary categories and concepts such as prose fiction, the novel, realism, versimilitude, sensibility and Romanticism, and the ability to apply these in the formal analysis of literary texts.
Be able to analyse works of eighteenth-century literature in relation to key cultural-historical contexts.
Have further developed their academic research and writing skills by writing a scholarly essay with a small research component.
Be able to express their critical understanding of a text in formal academic prose following the conventions of the MLA style literary-critical essay format.
Have shown independent learning skills by meeting deadlines and showing they can work with feedback to improve their academic writing skills.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Research
Assessment method
Assessment
Mid-Term: a 1200-1500-word essay with a small research component (engagement with two academic essays), presented according to the rules of the MLA stylesheet (35%; minimum grade required 6,0). Submitted via Turnitin on Brightspace.
January deadline: Take-home exam (65%; minimum grade required 5,0). Submitted via Turnitin on Brightspace.
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher. NOTE: the minimum grade for the MLA style mid-term essay is a 6,0, and the minimum grade for the take-home exam is 5,0.
Resit
When the weighted average is below 5.5 or the grade for one of the assignments is lower than the minimum, the student will have to resit one (or both) of the assignments. Resit assignments will need to be revised according to the feedback provided and resubmitted on the day of the resit deadline via Turnitin on Brightspace.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Assignments will be posted with feedback on Brightspace. Students are expected to study the feedback and to use this to improve on their next writing assignment. Students will be offered the possibility to review their exam answers.
Reading list
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe (Penguin)
Godwin, William. Caleb Williams (Oxford World’s Classics)
Greenblatt, Stephen, et al (eds.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th, 10th, or 11th edition, vols 1 & 2, or vols C (The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century) & D (The Romantic Period) (Norton)
Radcliffe, Ann, A Sicilian Romance (Oxford World’s Classics)
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela (Oxford World’s Classics)
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Please see the Brightspace page for further literary and historical resources to prepare for your study.