Course syllabus

 

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ENGLISH 731: Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte
SEMESTER 2, 2018

30 points

 
Course Convenor:  Joanne Wilkes

 

Course delivery format:

One three-hour seminar

(Timetable and room details can be viewed on Student Services Online)

 Summary of Course Description:              

While both Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë stand among the best-known and canonical English novelists, their work differs as greatly as the Georgian and Victorian eras in which each wrote.  Brontë famously critiqued Austen’s style, meanly comparing her stories to walled, small, claustrophobic gardens and declaring a preference for more open and natural spaces.  In spite of Brontë’s insistence upon difference, however, these two writers also have a lot in common.  This course examines a selection of their works and considers how they responded to the literary and social environment of their time (from their juvenilia onwards). The course will pay attention to the reception history of their lives and works, from the nineteenth century to the present, such as the development of their reputations in academic and popular accounts, and screen adaptations of their fiction in the Hollywood-led resurgence of interest in both authors. Another important context is critical interest since the 1970s in the constraints affecting nineteenth-century women’s writing.

 

 Assessment Summary:

 

Weekly Topics:

 

Prescribed Texts:

Jane Austen: Love and Freindship, and Other Youthful Writings, ed. Christine Alexander (Penguin)
Mansfield Park, ed. Jane Stabler
Persuasion, ed. Deidre Shauna Lynch
Pride and Prejudice, ed. Fiona Stafford (last three all Oxford World's Classics)

The Brontës,  Tales of Glass Town, Angria and Gondal: Selected Early Writings, ed. Christine Alexander
Charlotte Brontë:  The Professor, ed. Margaret Smith
Shirley, ed. Margaret Smith
Villette, ed. Margaret Smith  (all World's Classics)

 

It is permissible to use other editions of the set texts if you own them.

 

 Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework:           

The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.

Course summary:

Date Details Due