Undergraduate

The nineteenth-century novel

On this page

• Summary
• Course content
• Entry
• Qualifications
• If you have a disability or additional requirement
• Course materials
• Teaching and assessment
• Students also studied
• Future availability
• How to register

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Summary

Novels in the nineteenth century were particularly engaged with the events, circumstances, beliefs and attitudes of their time. This course encourages you to enjoy and understand them through the study of twelve texts from England (mainly), France and the USA, including works by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Dickens, George Eliot, Flaubert and Conrad. The focus is on understanding the role of the novel in representing and exploring social and cultural change, the flexibility of the genre and how it developed aesthetically, stylistically and structurally. You’ll also engage with academic debates appropriate to study at Level 3, through the examination of contemporary and current critical approaches.

Course content

Of all literary genres, the novel is probably the best adapted to the representation and exploration of social change and one of the aims of the course is to provide opportunities for investigating the ways that novels can function as evidence in enquiries about the past.

Book 1 The first half of the course introduces six nineteenth-century novels: Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre, Dombey and Son, Middlemarch, Far From the Madding Crowd and Germinal. A brief introduction leads to a section on ‘Books and Their Readers’, which provides a context for the production and consumption of novel texts. Chapters on the novels follow in two main sections. In the first, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre and Dombey and Son are explored with emphasis on issues of genre, starting with close readings of the text and moving on to a wider discussion of relevant issues. A distinctive aspect of this first part is the extent to which novels are seen to construct their plots in terms of the changing nature of a more or less settled community – at times, as in Jane Eyre, in terms of the radical interference of an outsider figure. In the second part, chapters on Middlemarch, Far From the Madding Crowd and Germinal examine how fictional conventions are modified as writers engage with social and political issues, including the extent to which the novels endorse or contest the circumstances they describe, and the extent to which they seek a fictional resolution for what are ultimately political dilemmas.

Book 2 In the first part of this book we look at the problematic constructions of female identity in Madame Bovary, The Woman in White and The Portrait of a Lady. The Woman in White has a central position to allow for an interrogation of ‘realist’ methods and effects by means of the subversive and extremely popular genre of sensationalism, at the same time challenging Flaubert’s and James’s creations. The second part leads to an examination of the opportunities created by the decline of the traditional ‘three-decker’ novel form and the profound questioning of moral certainties evident towards the end of the century in Dracula, The Awakening and Heart of Darkness. As well as the study of these six novels from the European, English and American traditions, we consider such issues as the increasing self-consciousness of novelists and the changing nature of the relationship between their work and its readers and publishers.

Entry

This is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject, preferably at the OU. Our course Approaching literature (A210) is highly recommended as preparation. It is a wide-ranging introduction to literary texts and how they are studied, essential if you have little or no experience of literary criticism. AA316 builds on Block 1 of A210 – The realist novel. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

Preparatory work

You are strongly advised to read as many of the set texts as you can before the course begins, especially as the two most substantial novels on the course, Dombey and Son and Middlemarch, form something of a ‘bulge’ in the first half of the year’s work. Whilst most of the set texts are shorter than the average nineteenth-century novel, there is a considerable amount of reading to be done.

Qualifications

AA316 is an optional course in our

• BA (Honours) English Language and Literature (B39)
• BA (Honours) Literature (B02)
• BA (Honours) Humanities (B03)
• BA (Honours) Humanities (B03) (with Literature)
• Diploma in Literature (D65)
• Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing (E25)

It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is suitable for a BA. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.

If you have a disability or additional requirement

The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Large print versions of the course materials can be provided on request. Written transcripts are available for the audio material. The written course material is available in comb-bound format.Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.

If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.

Course materials

What's included

Course books, other printed materials, audio CDs, course website.

Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness

Bram Stoker Dracula.

You will need

Audio CD player.

Computing requirements

This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.

You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.  Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.

You can choose whether to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) on paper or online through the eTMA system. You may want to use the eTMA system for some of your assignments but submit on paper for others. This is entirely your choice.

The last TMA is double length. Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a ‘substitution score’. In AA316 this rule can apply to one of the first five assignments only. You will be given more detailed information when you begin the course.

Students also studied

Students who studied this course also studied at some time:

• Approaching literature (A210)
• 20th century literature: texts and debates (A300)
• Creative writing (A215)
• Shakespeare: text and performance (AA306)

Future availability

The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2009. We expect it to be available once a year.

How to register

To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.

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An undergraduate course in Arts and Humanities.

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Student Reviews

On the whole, this is an enjoyable course that involved some interesting books. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, I ...
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In my opinion AA316 is an absolutely fantastic course, and of the three I have studied with the OU, by ...
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