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• Introduce to key literary developments from 1688 to 1832.
• Enable students to understand the relationship between the rise of the British Empire and developments in literary representation.
• Develop in students a critically sophisticated sense of the relationship between eighteenth-century literary forms and modern-day literary concerns.
• Enable students to evaluate with confidence the relative strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical and critical approaches to eighteenth-century literature.
• Encourage students to evaluate the helpfulness of the term ‘global eighteenth century’ for an appreciation of literary history.
• Provide students with a historically contextualised and nuanced understanding of the concept of personal identity and its significance for literature.

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:
1. Understand of different historical narratives regarding literary developments in the eighteenth century (for instance, ‘the rise of the novel’).
2. Engage critically and creatively with key moral and social concepts of the period (for instance, ‘virtue’).
3. Demonstrate a sophisticated appreciation of the relationship between the eighteenth century and later periods of literary production.
4. Analyse and interpret eighteenth-century texts, taking into account specifics of form, structure, language and context.
5. Deploy enhanced skills in essay construction, argument and research.

This module covers British literature from the time of the Glorious Revolution (1688) to the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815). Through an emphasis on global historical contexts as well as close textual analysis, it explores the relationship between Britain’s expanding empire and new ways of defining and writing persons. The texts studied in the course reflect changing understandings of categories such as class, gender, sexuality, race and nationality, which arise against the background of Britain’s commercial and military expansion - and thus provide a basis for considering eighteenth-century literature in global historical context.

The eighteenth century’s negotiation of these categories remains central to our twenty-first century views on how literature may both police and – conversely – help realise different kinds of identity. In this regard, the course will actively encourage reflection on the parallels between eighteenth-century texts and identities, and our own. In order to spend adequate time on some of the central literary texts of the period, the course will dedicate two weeks of analysis and discussion to each of the longest works (Gulliver’s Travels, Tristram Shandy, An Interesting Narrative and Persuasion); other, shorter works (fables, essays, poetry selections) will be addressed in a single week each.

The module will be delivered mainly through lectures and seminars, supported by guest lectures on relevant topics (e.g. in the past Dr Adeola Solanke has lectured on the 18th-c ex-slave poet Phillis Wheatley), field trips and self-directed learning.

Each week’s preparatory reading will be guided by critical themes and questions, as well as suggested scholarly readings, all provided in the module handbook circulated at the start of the year. In each class, students will be provided with introductory material placing each text in its appropriate social, historical, cultural and (where appropriate) theoretical context. In class, a combination of individual and group activities will consolidate preparatory reading, support close literary analysis, and develop critical evaluation. Classes will regularly include short workshops designed to familiarize students with relevant electronic and other scholarly resources and otherwise equip with practical skills required for the coursework.

At least three field trips will be organised, introducing students to non-textual primary resources (e.g. paintings, manuscripts and other historical artefacts) which students may use as sources for coursework.

Essay: 50% weighting, 40% pass mark.
Learning Outcomes: 1, 4, 5.
Word Length: 3000 words.
Outline Details: Scholarly research essay on a topic relating to the module, focusing on at least one longer set text. Students must substantively engage with at least 3 secondary works.

Coursework: 50% weighting, 40% pass mark.
Learning Outcomes: 2, 3, 4.
Word Length: 2500 words.
Outline Details: Piece of creative writing responding to at least one set text (1000-1500 words), accompanied by a critical evaluation (500-1000 words).

Formative Assessment: Formative research essay, 1,000 words. Formative creative project, 1,000 words.