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The House of Fiction: Literary Realism (ENGL20025)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5Dual-Delivery (Parkville)
Please refer to the return to campus page for more information on these delivery modes and students who can enrol in each mode based on their location.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 2
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 - Dual-Delivery |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This subject examines domestic realist fiction as a genre and cultural institution, from Jane Austen’s early nineteenth century country-house novel to the contemporary graphic novel. It provides an introduction to narratology, the critical framework for the study of narrative fiction. Considering the theory of the novel that emerged with its practice, we ask: how has the genre been transformed within the fictions themselves and through this theory and critical reception? Key topics include: the family romance and its drama of insiders and outsiders; courtship, marriage and property plots; psychological interiority; and the symbolic lives of domestic interiors. Traditionally associated with the eighteenth-century “rise” of the novel that consecrated the bourgeois marriage plot and the “omniscient” narrator, realist fiction is now the site of queer re-imaginings of intimacy and the family; critical questioning of realism’s long association with objectivity and reportage; enquiry into the theology-pathology of the detail; and a new emphasis on nonnarrative or affective features. Harnessing the tension between realist enchantment and ordinariness, we examine realism’s transfiguration of the commonplace. We also examine the conjugal imperative of the marriage plot and modes of un-conjugality. In these ways, we consider realism and its enchantments as well as its discontents; realism’s rise and fall and transformation through what Fredric Jameson refers to as “the tide of affect” that sweeps over the late nineteenth-century novel; and the futures-past of a genre that increasingly powers domesticity with the strange and unfamiliar.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- to have developed a detailed knowledge of the contexts of production and reception of key realist texts in a range of historical and geographical settings;
- to have gained a first-hand acquaintance with key examples of global domestic realist fiction in English from the early nineteenth- to the early twenty-first centuries;
- to be able to utilise an introductory understanding of the key critical vocabularies for the discussion of novelistic form;
- to have acquired a familiarity with a range of literary-critical, cultural-historical and theoretical approaches to realist fiction.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should acquire the following generic skills:
- 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 contextualization 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;
- time management and planning: through the successful organization of workloads; through disciplined self-direction and the ability to meet deadlines.
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
106-230 Reverberations of Terror: 1789-1900
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: 11 April 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
An essay
| Mid semester | 40% |
An essay
| During the examination period | 60% |
Hurdle requirement: This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% attendance and regular participation in tutorials as well as a class presentation. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Additional details
Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked.
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Coordinator Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours Total 30 hours: a 1-hour lecture and a 1.5-hour tutorial per week. Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 26 July 2021 to 24 October 2021 Last self-enrol date 6 August 2021 Census date 31 August 2021 Last date to withdraw without fail 24 September 2021 Assessment period ends 19 November 2021 Semester 2 contact information
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- Jane Austen, Emma (1815)
- Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
- Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party (1922) [short stories]
- Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris (1935)
- Patrick White, The Twyborn Affair (1979)
- Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac (1985)
- Shyam Selvadurai, Cinnamon Gardens (1998)
- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006)
- Colm Tóibín, The Empty Family (2010) [short stories]
The subject reader will include critical and theoretical material from the following: Nancy Armstrong, Roland Barthes, Peter Brooks, Dorrit Cohn, Catherine Gallagher, Gérard Genette, Fredric Jameson, Claudia L. Johnson, F.R. Leavis, D.A. Miller, Franco Moretti, Naomi Schor, Ian Watt, Alex Woloch.
- Subject notes
Students who have completed 673-345 Reverberations of Terror: 1789-1900 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies Major English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies - Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Biomedicine
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Environments
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art)
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- 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.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 11 April 2024