106-058 Scandal, Sex and Sentiment

Usually 12.5 points of first year English, or first year gender studies.

This subject traces the development of the English novel during the 18th century, from its beginnings in the personal and political scandal writing produced by Defoe and Haywood through the contested invention of domestic femininity in Richardson to the repudiation of excessive female sentiment in Austen. We will consider the novel's role in constructing discourses of gender, sexuality and sentiment as it develops as a major literary form. Social, cultural and economic constituents of the public sphere and print culture will be examined, as will popular, romance and pornographic components of the bourgeois novel. Students who complete this subject will be familiar with current theories about the construction of subjectivity, sexuality and sentiment in this genre, and will have developed their own critical readings of a range of 18th century English novels.

• 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;

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

A text-based exercise of 1000 words 25% (due mid-semester) and an essay of 3000 words 75% (due in the examination period).

A subject reader with contextual and critical material will be available from the University Bookshop.

• J Austen, Sense and Sensibility. Penguin.
• F Burney, Evelina. Worlds Classics.
• E Haywood, Love in Excess. Broadview.
• D Defoe, Moll Flanders. Worlds Classics.
• S Richardson, Pamela. Houghton Mifflin.
• H Fielding, Joseph Andrews. Broadview.
• J Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Worlds Classics.
• C Lennox, The Female Quixote. Worlds Classics.