Overview

This module explores how literary texts published between 1790 and 1940 represent and participate in the revolutionary movements and moments that shaped the modern world. It considers how literary texts engage with the philosophical underpinnings of revolutionary activity, and how they express enthusiasm or anxieties about specific revolutionary events, especially the French revolution of 1789, the European revolutions of 1848, and the First World War and its aftermath. It asks how the conditions of modernity - social, political, economic, and cultural - inform literature thematically, exploring representations of social inequality, class conflict, gender, sexuality, colonialism, and empire. But it also considers how writers developed new aesthetic forms and genres to represent and critique modernity. Authors studied are likely to include Edmund Burke, Thomas Carlyle, Elizabeth Gaskell, Amy Dillwyn, Idris Davies, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, William Morris, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

While this list may vary from year to year, topics are likely to include

• Marx and Modernity
• The 1790s Revolution Controversy
• Romanticism and Revolution (poetry selection provided)
• Romanticism and Revolutionary Vision
• Chartism, Industrial Revolution, and Industrial Fiction
• Industrial Conflict, Rural Life, and Rebellion in Wales
• Revolution, Socialism, and Utopia
• Socialism, Feminism, and Evolutionary Thought
• Irish Nationalism and Revolution
• Modernism and Literary Rev

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

Learning Outcomes

• Critically explore theories of the relationship between textual production, ideology, modernity and aesthetic change.

• Demonstrate critically informed reading of texts published between 1790 and 1830.

• Show a sophisticated understanding of different cultural contexts and their effects on writing and text production.

• Understand the role of inter-cultural encounter in shaping recent and contemporary literary contexts.