Module description
The purpose of this module is to give you a rare opportunity to study in-depth a range of works by one of the greatest and most influential writers of the nineteenth century: George Eliot. A woman with many names (born Mary Ann Evans, she changed her name to Marian Lewes when she began her relationship with the writer George Henry Lewes; in print she was mainly George Eliot; and when she died, she was Mrs John Cross), she wrote critical essays, long novels, novellas and short stories, narrative poetry, translations, as well as private writings, such as letters and diaries, and she was read in English and in translation, in all continents of the world. During the module, we will explore her work from three angles. First her complex narrative style: what are its characteristics, and how does it develop and change over her career? We will sample her work across all of the genres in which she wrote, and think about realism, narrative, character, psychology and emotion. Second her milieu: who were the writers and thinkers, artists, musicians, lawyers, and activists with whom she conversed and exchanged ideas and shared her life? Who were her ‘network’ – friends, collaborators, and enemies - and how did their lives and ideas interface with her works? Third we will think about her publishing contexts: how did people publish in the mid Victorian period, in what formats, and why? And how were the works disseminated? And what did it mean for unmarried woman of dubious sexual morals to publish in these decades? In the first half of the module we will concentrate on shorter works – essays, diaries, novellas, poetry; in the second part we will focus on two of her long novels – The Mill on the Floss (1860) and her late great novel, Daniel Deronda (1876). There will be an opportunity to write on her other works if students choose to. Over the course of the module we will also consider critical responses to her work in her own time and ever since, and think about the way in which her work has influenced literary criticism in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Assessment details
Written examination/s;coursework
Reader Response Forum via KEATS (15%) and 3 hour exam (85%)
Teaching pattern
1 x 2 hour seminar, weekly