Overview

How can writing change the world? And how do writers and other literary actors develop new forms, media, genres, and styles to express new ideas? This module considers the relationship between literature and revolutionary thinking – about class, gender, and race – in the nineteenth century, covering texts from the Romantic and Victorian periods. You will explore how writers engage with their social, economic, and political contexts, and how they use different forms, styles, and media to convey revolutionary ideas, critique current conditions, and create visions of different – perhaps better – worlds. We will begin with an overview of the texts that accompanied, and reacted to, the late-eighteenth century revolutions in America, France, and Haiti and go on to trace how these events influenced Romantic print culture, covering a variety of forms including pamphlets, essays, images, poems, and short fiction. The second half of the module examines how selected Victorian novelists reached back to the previous generation of Romantic writers to express their own dreams of better worlds, with particular emphasis on sexual and social equality. We will explore how writers like Charles Dickens, Olive Schreiner, and Thomas Hardy push the boundaries of realist fiction, experimenting with literary form to envisage alternative social and political arrangements.

While the precise syllabus will be updated on a regular basis, you can expect to cover some of the following themes, topics, and writers:

• revolutionary texts, including the American Declaration of Independence (1776), France's Declaration of the Right of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and Haiti's Declaration of Independence (1804)
• the 1790s revolution controversy, including texts by Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Richard Price, and Mary Wollstonecraft
• Mary Wollstonecraft and the Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
• Abolition and Enslavement, including narratives of enslavement.
• Romantic poetry and revolution, including English-language work by poets from India.
• Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
• Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm (1884)
• Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895)

Assessment Strategy

Excellent Typically, work graded A- to A** (or 70 to 100) will show many of the following qualities: • Discusses ideas with confidence and precision • Demonstrates maturity and sophistication • Displays deep knowledge of the subject in question; the answer is totally relevant • Shows independent, analytical and clear thought • Gives evidence of substantial and relevant reading • Shows great accuracy in expression, displaying total mastery over all aspects of the language • Shows occasional signs of brilliance and originality of thought • In creative work: displays considerable originality • Command over medium; may have potential for publication/production

Good Typically, work graded B- to B+ (or 60 to 69) will show many of the following qualities: • Discusses ideas adeptly • Most of the arguments about a specific field are well-aired • Displays knowledge of the subject in question; the answer is relevant • Shows analytical and clear thought • Gives evidence of relevant reading • Shows accuracy in expression with mastery over language. • A few minor errors here and there. • Signs of creative thought deserve a higher position within the class • In creative work: shows signs of originality, having understood the requirements of the medium • Plans of well-balanced and full answers, despite some gaps

Satisfactory Typically, work graded C- to C+ (or 50 to 59) will show many of the following qualities: • Discusses ideas, but without much confidence • A respectable effort but not showing any unusual talent; a few flashes of originality here and there • Makes reference to the subject in question, but some important matters not mentioned • Fairly clear thought on most occasions, and the arguments relevant on the whole • Evidence of having read some works associated with the field in question • Quite accurate expression, though the points may sometimes be presented clumsily • Signs of conscientious work deserve a higher position within the class • In creative work: not having quite mastered the requirements of the medium • Evidence of planning in the answers, but a lack of coherence at times; undisciplined and unsure at times

Pass Typically, work graded D- to D+ (or 40 to 49) will show many of the following qualities: • Unsure and lacking in confidence when discussing ideas • Referring to the subject in question in a superficial manner • Making an effort to provide fairly balanced answers • Some points in the argument irrelevant to the topic • Little evidence of background reading • Some uncertainty over language and syntax • Strengths and weaknesses fairly balanced; occasionally clumsy and unimaginative • In creative work: superficial • Not succeeding in mastering the requirements of the medium

Learning Outcomes

• Analyse critically how literary texts use the affordances of different genres, styles, and forms to articulate social and political critique

• Assess how Victorian writers engage with earlier revolutionary texts and ideas to respond to their specific socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts

• Critically and reflectively evaluate the relationship between literature, political movements, and social change

• Discuss and appraise relevant theoretical and critical approaches to the relationship between literature and politics, including New Historicism, Marxism, and Political Formalism

• Interpret how nineteenth-century writers working in a range of forms developed and critiqued revolutionary ideas in specific historical contexts