Unit rationale, description and aim
Professionals performing any cultural work need to have a firm grasp of the way literary culture developed in the nineteenth century. This was a crucial period in the development of a reading public, an extensive system of publishers and a professional authorial class. This unit examines the ideas in the writing of this period, their historical roots in revolutionary politics and thought, and the growth of national literatures at a time of rapid social and technological change. It also explores how literature navigated the pivotal debates of a period that laid the foundations for the contemporary world: gender, class, colonialism and industrialisation. The aim of the unit is to allow students to understand the relationships between nineteenth-century society and literature by reflecting critically on the debates present in the writing of this period.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Discuss theoretical approaches towards and textual...
Learning Outcome 01
Communicate clearly in written and/or oral form, i...
Learning Outcome 02
Locate, evaluate and appropriately reference a var...
Learning Outcome 03
Apply the methods that literary theorists have use...
Learning Outcome 04
Reflect on key debates relating to literary studie...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
This unit will include a variety of topics relating to the context and content of nineteenth-century literature. Students will consider contemporary nineteenth-century social circumstances and concepts through the examination of a variety of textual examples. Students have the opportunity to discuss theoretical approaches and apply literary theories to nineteenth-century texts. Lectures, tutorial discussions and assessments in the unit are designed to incorporate scholarly research on nineteenth-century literature, encouraging students to reflect critically upon the relationships between nineteenth-century society and literature.
Assessment strategy and rationale
A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements.
The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. To pass the unit, students are required to submit and participate in all assessment tasks.
Assessment task one is designed to be primarily formative of advanced level close reading skills.
The second task requires students to demonstrate their ability to synthesise scholarly arguments with their own ideas to make insightful conclusions about a selection of nineteenth-century texts
The final task is summative and requires students to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of nineteenth-century literature and key debates within the scholarship that addresses it.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Close reading Task This tas...
Assessment Task 1: Close reading Task
This task requires students to demonstrate close reading of nineteenth-century texts by considering them in relation to their social context.
20%
Assessment Task 2: Analytical/Research Task Thi...
Assessment Task 2: Analytical/Research Task
This task requires students to examine particular nineteenth-century texts and analyse them in relation to relevant research material.
40%
Assessment Task 3: Summative Task / Examination ...
Assessment Task 3: Summative Task / Examination
This task requires students to demonstrate understanding of nineteenth-century literature and key debates that surround it.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This face-to-face unit will use class exercises, discussions and formal assignments to encourage analyses of nineteenth-century literature. Student engagement will be developed through in-class exercises including group work encouraging the exploration of nineteenth-century literature through the analysis of relevant examples. Students will investigate critical concepts relevant to the nineteenth-century context and consider these in relation to particular texts. The unit will encourage students to analyse nineteenth-century literature in relation to both aesthetic and social changes of that period, as well as in the light of subsequent scholarly responses. The unit will emphasise clear writing and research as key skills in developing well-argued and evidence-based analyses.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy.