Module description
This module enables students to "place" Austen in a number of different senses: socially, environmentally, and with a view to her lasting legacies and impact on our modern cultural industries. We will particularly attend to the treatment of place as a theme across her own novels, the way that her characters navigate space and that particular geographical locations bear witness to social interaction. Though Charlotte Brontë famously complained that Austen's works offered only a "highly cultivated garden" with "no open country", we will discuss Austen's interest in a much wider range of settings, which in turns allows for a complex engagement with ideas of nature, colonialism, health, leisure, and mobility.
Assessment details
1 x 3 hour unseen exam (100%)
Semester 1 only students will be set an alternative assessment in lieu of any in-person exams.
Educational aims & objectives
The educational aims of this module are: to provide insight into Austen as a writer amongst her contemporaries; to situate her in social, literary and historical contexts; and to explore the significance of place and the physical environment for her works.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate intellectual, transferable and practical skills appropriate to a Level 6 modules and in particular will demonstrate:
- Knowledge of Austen's major novels, particularly her techniques and methods of narration.
- Understanding of the historical and social circumstances of Austen's period, including the ways her works are implicated in colonial discourse.
- Knowledge of modern dramatic adaptations of Austen's work for film and television and ability to compare and contrast these with the novels as written by Austen.
- Knowledge of the environmental humanities as a burgeoning field and confidence when applying its methods to the study of a major literary figure.
Teaching pattern
1 x 2 hour seminar, weekly
Suggested reading list
Students can expect to study all of Austen's major novels over the course of the semester, alongside works by select contemporaries.