EN3NP-Novels and Paintings: 1850-1930

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2019/0

Module Convenor: Dr John Scholar

Email: j.m.scholar@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module examines the relationship between novels and the visual arts, such as painting, interior design, photography, and film, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Literature and painting have been described as ‘sister arts’ since ancient times but in the nineteenth century this relationship became more adversarial. Literature began to colonize the visual arts: the rise of art criticism projected words onto paintings, while novelists stole the vocabulary of painters in an attempt to elevate the novel into one of the high arts. But the visual arts fought back: just as the new realist novel was becoming the pre-eminent means of recording the world, photography and film began to take over the narrative space occupied by the novel. Does a knowledge of the visual arts help us understand literature? How in this period did literature and art differently register cultural, technological and political changes?

Aims:

This module aims to provide students with an informed critical understanding of some key novelists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and an understanding of how the visual arts can help us understand them.

By the end of the module, students will be better acquainted with a range of important novelists from the Victorian, Edwardian and modernist periods, and be able to compare and contrast them. They will also be able to discuss in both theoretical and historical terms some of the ways that a knowledge of the visual arts can help us understand these novelists.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module students will be expected to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of certain key cultural debates between 1850 and 1930


• Show an ability to use these debates to inform close critical analysis of the selected texts


• Understand the implications of different novelistic forms for reading


• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the visual arts as a context for literary study


• Show an ability to use this knowledge to inform close critical analysis of the selected texts


• Engage critically with ideas presented in seminars and secondary materials


• Research, organize and articulate a scholarly critical argument in writing

Additional outcomes:

Oral and written communication skills will be developed, together with critical, interpretative and analytical abilities.

Outline content:

This module examines a range of Victorian, Edwardian and modernist texts in the context of wider artistic, social and intellectual debates. Writers may include George Eliot, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Three seminar hours weekly, for which students are required to do preparatory reading. Students are also entitled to a half-hour tutorial on their formative written work.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Seminars	30		1
Tutorials	0.5
Guided independent study:	168.5
Total hours by term	200		1
Total hours for module	200

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written exam	50
Written assignment including essay	50

Summative assessment- Examinations:

A two-hour exam.

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Summative essay of 2,500 words, due on the last Friday of term. 

Formative assessment methods:

Students write one formative essay of 2000 words. Feedback will also be provided on the summative essay.

Penalties for late submission:
The Module Convener will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day[1] (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;

where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/qualitysupport/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

A mark of at least 40% overall.

Reassessment arrangements:

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Cost	Amount
Required text books	£75
Specialist equipment or materials
Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear
Printing and binding
Computers and devices with a particular specification
Travel, accommodation and subsistence

Last updated: 8 April 2019