106-039 Literary Classics

Usually 12.5 points of first-year English.

Everybody loves a good book. But what is a good book? How do we evaluate literature and what makes one book 'high culture' and the next 'low culture'? This subject provides opportunities not only to study various texts commonly regarded as classics of English and American literature, but also to enquire into how they came to achieve this status. This subject will examine canonical texts and their dissemination into popular culture. In a post-modern era which has 'killed off' the author, this subject aims to establish where this leaves the seminal writers who penned these literary classics. Students who successfully complete this subject will understand why literary classics attract competing interpretations; understand why 'literature' and 'literary merit' are contested categories in the history of writing; and develop a critical understanding of right-wing defences of literary canons and left-wing critiques of them.

• be able to apply new research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

• develop critical self-awareness and shape and strengthen persuasive arguments;

• communicate arguments and ideas effectively and articulately, both in writing and to others.

A research essay of 2500 words 50% (due mid-semester); a reflective essay of 1500 words 40% (due at the end of the semester); and participation (10%).

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• J Austen, Mansfield Park. Oxford World's Classics.
• E Bronte, Wuthering Heights. Oxford World's Classics.
• T Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Oxford World's Classics.
• T S Eliot, The Waste Land. Faber.
• Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Oxford.
• F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
• V Nabokov, Lolita.