Literary Pleasure (ENGL40010)
HonoursPoints: 12.5Not available in 2020
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
About this subject
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
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This subject examines the uses and abuses of literary pleasure, considering it as a category of analysis that develops from the eighteenth century with the emergence of literature as an institution and disciplinary formation. Through a series of literary, theoretical and critical readings, students analyse the singularity of literary pleasure, whilst engaging it in its institutional, economic, social, affective and corporeal locations. The subject introduces students to current debates in literary aesthetics that engage the fraught relations between pleasure and value. Students trace these debates historically, moving from Edmund Burke's vocabulary of aesthetic affect, Kant's "castrated hedonism", and eighteenth-century writings on the dangerous pleasures of novel-reading, through nineteenth-century art-for-art's-sake theories, utilitarianism and late Victorian 'New Hedonism', to Marxist and social practice accounts of literary value, and contemporary queer theory. Many influential theories have been notoriously unable to account for the specific forms and values of literary pleasure: asking why is a key focus of the subject.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, students should have:
- an understanding of the category of literary pleasure as it has developed since the eighteenth century;
- an understanding of current debates in literary aesthetics that engage the relations between pleasure and value; and
- a familiarity with a range of literary-critical, cultural-historical and theoretical approaches to the category of literary pleasure.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should gain generic skills in:
- research through competent use of library, and other (including online) information sources; through the successful definition of areas of inquiry and methods of research;
- critical thinking and analysis through use of recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion; through the questioning of accepted wisdom and the ability to shape and strengthen persuasive judgments and arguments; through attention to detail in reading material; and through openness to new ideas and the development of critical self-awareness;
- theoretical thinking through use of recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion; through a productive engagement with relevant methodologies and paradigms in literary studies and the broader humanities;
- creative thinking through essay writing and tutorial discussion; through the innovative conceptualising of problems and an appreciation of the role of creativity in critical analysis;
- social, ethical and cultural understanding through use of recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion; through the social contextualisation of arguments and judgments; through adaptations of knowledge to new situations and openness to new ideas; through the development of critical self-awareness in relation to an understanding of other cultures and practices;
- intelligent and effective communication of knowledge and ideas through essay preparation, planning and writing as well as tutorial discussion; through effective dissemination of ideas from recommended reading and other relevant information sources; through clear definition of areas of inquiry and methods of research. through confidence to express ideas in public forums; and
- time management and planning through the successful organization of workloads. through disciplined self-direction and the ability to meet deadlines.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
An essay, due near the middle of semester.
| Mid semester | 20% |
An essay
| During the examination period | 80% |
| Hurdle requirement: Students are required to attend a minimum of 80% (or 10 out of 12) classes in order to qualify to have their written work assessed. Any student who fails to meet this hurdle without valid reason will not be eligible to pass the subject. All required written work must be submitted in order to pass the subject. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Additional details
Essays submitted after the due date without an extension will be penalised 2% per day. Essays submitted after two weeks of the assessment due date without a formally approved application for special consideration or an extension will only be marked on a pass/fail basis if accepted.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Dates & times
Not available in 2020
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
A subject reader including primary materials by Edmund Burke, Roland Barthes , Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, Christina Rossetti and AC Swinburne will be available.
- J Austen, Sense and Sensibility.
- A Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.
- J Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
- CA Duffy, Rapture.
- I Kant, Critique of Judgment.
- M Proust, Swann's Way, In Search of Lost Time, Vol 1.
- Subject notes
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies - Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Additional information for this subject
Subject coordinator approval required
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 3 November 2022