Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture MA

The module will examine critically a range of nineteenth-century literary texts, allowing students to gain a sophisticated understanding of the main genres, styles and contexts associated with the literary culture of the period. Students will analyse novels, poetry, drama, short stories and non-fiction prose. Focusing on the work of both the famous and the more obscure, students are offered the opportunity to examine how writers interacted with and shaped their culture. Students will examine not only the key canonical writers of the period (such as Austen, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Dickens, Browning, Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, the Brontës, George Eliot, Wilde and Hardy), but also the work of less well-known writers not usually included in the literary canon (such as Charlotte Smith, James Hogg, Felicia Hemans, John Clare, Charles Maturin, William Carleton, Ouida, Margaret Oliphant, Mary E. Coleridge, and H. Rider Haggard). Students will be able to gain knowledge of the broad trends within the literary culture of the period, as well as engage in close and detailed analysis of the set texts. The module will also consider the main publishing developments and formats of the nineteenth century (such as serialisation, magazine publication, circulating libraries
etc.) and consider how these writers responded to (and sometimes reacted against) one another’s works throughout the period.

1. To analyse critically the various literary genres, narrative strategies and themes associated with a wide range of nineteenth-century literary texts;
2. To situate the set texts within their wider historical, social, literary and production contexts;
3. To encourage a sophisticated reflection on critical constructions of the notion of the literary canon and to analyse literary texts in relation to changing perceptions of ‘the canonical’;
4. To employ and evaluate critically diverse theoretical perspectives and critical approaches and to encourage original interpretations where appropriate.

Nineteenth-Century Culture is the second core module of the programme, designed to complement Nineteenth-Century Literature: The Canon and Beyond.  Employing an interdisciplinary approach, it is designed to inform and develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the literature, not only by immersing them in the atmosphere and debates of the period, but also engaging with recent scholarship which has significantly expanded the boundaries of literary studies.  Understanding ‘culture’ as encompassing artistic and intellectual achievements and preoccupations, it will examine a range of key events, issues and movements in the nineteenth century and their impact on the literary culture. Conversely, students will also gain insights into how literature influenced the debates and movements of the period. They will read literary texts in relation to such areas as social history, politics, economics, theology, philosophy, science, technology, art and architecture. Typical areas of study could include: the French Revolution; Catholic Emancipation; the Reform Acts; the abolition of slavery; Chartism; the Great Famine; education reform; marriage reform; the woman question; the development of material cultures and the Great Exhibition; war; empire; nineteenth-century conceptions of masculinity; the Pre-Raphaelites; the Arts and Crafts and the Aesthetic movements; the impact of scientific advances in geology, biology and psychology. In any year one or two themes may form the focus of the module, depending on staffing and the most recent critical debates in the field. Students will analyse key non-fiction prose essays and speeches by a selection taken from the following writers: Wollstonecraft, Burke, Paine, Wilberforce, Carlyle, Mill, Ruskin, Newman, Arnold, Pater, Martineau, Marx, Engels, Darwin and Huxley. They will relate this work to a range of literary texts, from novels and poetry to plays and short stories. Chester is ideally situated for students to visit a wide range of locations, museums and galleries rich in nineteenth-century associations and artefacts, such as Dove Cottage and Brantwood in the Lake District, the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight, the Walker Gallery and the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, the Grosvenor Museum in Chester, the Whitworth Art Gallery, the Manchester Art Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

• To explore in depth some of the key issues and preoccupations of the period and relate these to developments in the literary culture;
• To engage with an interdisciplinary approach to nineteenth-century culture in order to assess the role of literature in the wider culture(s) of the period;
• To analyse in detail the works of important critical thinkers of the nineteenth century, as well as more recent critical work on the intersections of literature and society during the period;
• To encourage a sophisticated evaluation of a range of historical and non-fiction prose sources.

Research Methods is the third core module of the programme for those intending to proceed to the MA award, and is designed to prepare students for the dissertation.  The module explores the range of resources open to researchers in English generally, and in nineteenth-century literature and culture in particular, including the use of contemporary periodicals and archives, special collections, bibliographies and internet databases and sources.  Local resources for nineteenth-century studies, such as Gladstone's Library or the Grosvenor Museum, will be explored.  Students will also be encouraged to consider ways of disseminating their research, in writing, online and in presentations.  The research undertaken by students during the Research Methods module will provide the basis for their dissertation.

1. To develop the range of research skills, competencies, methods and methodologies useful to a researcher in English, and particularly in nineteenth-century literature and culture;
2. To enhance students’ research skills and scholarship in preparation for the dissertation;
3. To enable students to make sophisticated analyses and evaluations of research methods, approaches and materials;
4. To provide a supportive and critically reflective environment for the dissemination, discussion and development of research projects.

This module (required for the MA qualification) enables students to pursue and complete an extended research project on any aspect of nineteenth-century literature and / or culture as the culmination of their programme.  Students will have begun to devise their research proposal during the Research Methods module, and will work under the guidance of a supervisor to hone and clarify their argument.

1. To enable students to devise, develop and complete a substantial research project on an aspect of nineteenth-century literature and / or culture;
2. To promote the skilful practical application of the critical, theoretical and research skills acquired in the taught modules;
3. To support the student, through tutorial supervision and peer meetings, through the processes and methodologies of a large project from conception to completion;
4. To encourage students to become independent and original critical thinkers.

This module is offered as an alternative to the Dissertation.  It allows students who do not wish to undertake the Dissertation, which is necessary for the completion of the MA, to exit with a Postgraduate Diploma on the completion of all of the taught modules and the Research Essay.  The Research Essay enables students to pursue a short research project on an aspect of nineteenth-century literature and / or culture, and may develop some of the research completed during the Research Methods module (although students should be aware that assessment submitted during the Research Methods module should not be replicated in the Research Essay). 

1. To enable students to research, develop and write a short Research Essay on an aspect of nineteenth-century literature and / or culture;
2. To promote the practical application of the critical, theoretical and research skills acquired in the taught modules;
3. To support the student, through tutorial supervision, through the processes and methodologies of a short project from conception to completion;
4. To encourage students to become independent critical thinkers.

The module will focus in detail on either one or a group of nineteenth-century authors, or one or more related topics of interest in nineteenth-century literature and culture. Thus, for instance, in a typical year one of the following examples might be studied: a single author, such as Jane Austen, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Henry James, or Robert Browning; two or more authors who are susceptible to mutually illuminating comparison, such as the Brontës, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, or Decadent writers; one or more related topic(s), such as empire, race, nationality, science,  technology, and medicine, war, religious belief, travel, gender and sexuality, political thought, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, nineteenth-century theatre,
etc. Students will be encouraged to use a range of critical and theoretical approaches, which may include biographical and bibliographical study, historical contextualisation, theoretical/topic-based study, and structural and/or stylistic analysis.

1. To explore in depth either the work of one or more nineteenth-century author(s) or one or more significant topic(s) in nineteenth-century literature and culture;
2. To critically analyse the connections between the author(s)/topic(s) and their historical and cultural contexts;
3. To make sophisticated conceptual links between the key texts of the author(s) / the key ideas involved in the topic(s);
4. To evaluate current scholarship and critical and theoretical approaches to the author(s) / topic(s) concerned, and enhance students' own critical, theoretical and close-reading skills.