Unit information: Charles Dickens in 2018/19

Unit name	Charles Dickens
Unit code	ENGL39020
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. James
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Dickens has been regarded as both a crowd-pleasing sensationalist and a highly sophisticated literary innovator. This unit seeks to put these and other definitions of the author to the test. Among the topics for exploration will be: caricature and psychology; comedy and grotesquery; gender and sexuality; guardians and orphans; revelation and concealment. In addition to considering the contemporary reception of Dickens's works, the course will draw upon modern critical preoccupations, such as narrative theories, gender theories and psychoanalysis.

Aims:

Through the study of several full novels, along with extracts, short stories and some of Dickens's journalism, this unit will allow students to explore the diverse qualities of one of English Literature's finest and most distinctive writers. Preconceptions about both the Dickensian oeuvre and Victorian fiction will be challenged and complicated. Attention will be paid to character construction, narrative method, the social and political concerns of the novels, the evocation of scene and the rhetoric of sentiment. In particular, an appreciation of the overt fictitiousness of Dickens's narrative mode will inform the enquiry into his methods of composition and help to elucidate the author's subsequent mixed reception.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will have:

1. developed an understanding of the literary, cultural and socio-political contexts of Dickens's novels;
2. gained knowledge of the range and diversity of Dickens's writings, of his importance as a literary innovator and of some of the central concerns and issues that recur in his novels;
3. developed in-depth knowledge of selected works by means of close textual analysis and by engagement with various critical perspectives;
4. demonstrated the ability to identify and evaluate pertinent evidence in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent argument;
5. strengthened their skills in argumentation and academic writing.

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hour seminar per week.

Assessment Information

• 1 essay of 2,000 words (40%)

• 1 essay of 3,000 words (60%)

Both summative essays map onto ILOs 1-5.

Reading and References

Indicative Texts:

• Bleak House (1852-53), ed. Nicola Bradbury (Penguin)

• Great Expectations (1860-61), ed. Charlotte Mitchell (Penguin)

• Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), ed. Adrian Poole (Penguin)

• A Selection of Ghost Stories