Scandal, Sex and Sentiment

Subject 670-331 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 3 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject is not offered in 2009.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 1.5-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week
Total Time Commitment: Not available
Prerequisites:

Usually 12.5 points of first year English, or first year gender studies.
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability
Subject Overview:

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.
Objectives: Students who successfully complete this subject will understand the major social, economic and generic constituents of the development of the English novel in the eighteenth century;
be familiar with current theories about the construction of subjectivity, sexuality and sentimentality in the novel genre;
have developed their own critical readings of a range of eighteenth-century English novels.
Assessment:

A 1500 word essay 40% (due mid-semester) and a final essay of 2500 words 60% (due in the examination period).
Prescribed Texts:

A subject reader with contextual and critical material will be available.

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

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:

  • 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.
Notes:

This subject can be credited as an elective subject towards the Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma in Gender Studies.
Related Majors/Minors/Specialisations: Ancient, Medieval && Early Modern Studies Major
English
English Literary Studies Major
European Studies
Gender Studies

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