Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LI Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 39915
Module Lead	Matthew Ward
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module offers students the opportunity to read widely and deeply in the literature of the Eighteenth-Century and Romantic periods, engaging with the work of authors such as Pope. Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Burney, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, and Austen and reading enduring masterworks in tandem with a selection of diverse intertexts and modern criticism. Spanning a century marked by rapid social change, which culminated in violet revolutions, this was an era of exceptional artistic energy and achievement. During the period, gifted poets radically transformed the traditions of English verse and prose writers began to explore the full psychological and historical possibilities of the novel. The module will provide students with a thorough grounding in the key aesthetic, cultural, professional and material contexts for this body of literature, and introduce them to a range of modern critical and theoretical approaches to the era.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of literary works from the eighteenth century and Romantic period, and an ability to situate those works within appropriate social, material, and cultural contexts. Demonstrate skills in close reading texts from the eighteenth century and Romantic period, showing alertness to language and imagery and knowledge of characteristic literary styles, forms, and genres. Construct arguments that are substantiated by analysis and interpretation of appropriate evidence; present those arguments with clarity and sound organization. Identify and evaluate appropriate critical approaches to texts from the eighteenth century and Romantic periods.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: Portfolio of close readings 1,500 words (40%) Essay 2,000 words (60%) Reassessment: Failed component only Portfolio of close readings 1,500 words (40%) Essay 2,000 words (60%)
Other
Reading List