Studying at York
Wollstonecraft to Jane Austen: Femininity & Literary Culture - CES00004M
Module summary
This MA module, taught by a team of experts on eighteenth-century literature and culture, introduces students to a range of writing by women from the period 1770-1820. It investigates how Mary Wollstonecraft diagnosed the disadvantages that women and girls lived under at this period, and her plans for ‘a revolution in female manners’. And it analyses how Wollstonecraft, Austen, and their contemporaries represented a range of issues including social class, wealth, marriage, feeling, sexuality, and race, in their fiction, political tracts, travel writings, and poetry.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
Module aims
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to introduce students to some of the best writing by British women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
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to explore the relation between languages of sentiment and sensibility and the language of political controversy and debate in the period
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to introduce students to the skills and techniques of interdisciplinary research
Module learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with the varieties of women’s writing of the period across a range of styles and genres
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with some of the difficulties and possibilities for women in interacting with public life in the period
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Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with women’s writing and the representation of women in the period
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Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Written feedback, given in Week 5 for original assessment, and within two weeks of submission for re-assessed work
Indicative reading
Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mary Hays, The Memoirs of Emma Courtney
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Anna Laetitia Barbauld, selected writing
Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan, The Wild Irish Girl
Anonymous, The Woman of Colour
Charlotte Smith, selected writing
Jane Austen, Persuasion