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The House of Fiction: Literary Realism (ENGL20025)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable (login required)(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 2
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This subject introduces students to the multifaceted, dynamic and changing genre of domestic realist fiction, from the early nineteenth-century country-house novel to recent forms such as the graphic novel and the contemporary global novel of immigrant and cosmopolitan life. Reading eight novels alongside theory of the novel that emerged with its practice, the subject asks: how has the genre been transformed within the fictions themselves and through this theory and critical reception? Traditionally associated with the eighteenth-century “rise” of the novel that consecrated the bourgeois marriage plot and the “omniscient” narrator, realist fiction has been re-energized through queer re-imaginings of intimacy and the family; critical questioning of realism’s long association with objectivity and reportage; and a new attunement to realism’s artfulness, non-narrative features, affective textures, ironic and satirical energies, and intertextual allusiveness.
Key topics include: the family romance and its drama of insiders and outsiders; courtship, marriage and property plots; realism’s conjunction of psychological depth with social detail; the symbolic and social lives of domestic interiors; and the interplay between social, political and individual histories. Harnessing the tension between realist enchantment and ordinariness, students examine realism’s transfiguration of the commonplace. They immerse themselves in “the tide of affect” (Fredric Jameson) that sweeps over the late nineteenth-century novel and beyond. In all these ways, students explore realism’s transformation through the futures-past of a genre that is increasingly powered by the strange, uncanny and unfamiliar.
Intended learning outcomes
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 have acquired a familiarity with a range of literary-critical, cultural-historical and theoretical approaches to realist fiction
- To be able to utilise an introductory understanding of the key critical vocabularies for the discussion of novelistic form.
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: 27 April 2024
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: 27 April 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
An essay
| Mid semester | 40% |
An essay
| During the examination period | 60% |
Hurdle requirement: Attendance hurdle requirement: This subject has a minimum requirement of 80% attendance at tutorials, seminars, or workshops. There is an expectation that students attend lectures where offered. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Hurdle requirement: Late Penalty and Assessment hurdle requirement: Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at five per cent (5%) of the possible marks available for the assessment task per day or part thereof. All pieces of assessment must be submitted to pass the subject. Each submitted assessment must be complete, constitute a genuine attempt to address the requirements of the task and will not be accepted after 20 University business days from the original assessment due date without written approval. | Throughout the semester | N/A |
Last updated: 27 April 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Coordinator Clara Tuite Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours Total 30 hours: a 1-hour lecture and a 1.5-hour tutorial per week for 12 weeks. Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 22 July 2024 to 20 October 2024 Last self-enrol date 2 August 2024 Census date 2 September 2024 Last date to withdraw without fail 20 September 2024 Assessment period ends 15 November 2024 Semester 2 contact information
Time commitment details
170 hours
What do these dates mean
Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:
- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Last updated: 27 April 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- Jane Austen, Emma (1815)
- George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871-2)
- Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)
- Patrick White, The Aunt’s Story (1948)
- Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac (1984)
- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006)
- Michelle de Kretser, The Life to Come (2017)
The subject reader may 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.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Bachelor of Arts Course Graduate Certificate in Arts Course Graduate Diploma in Arts - 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: 27 April 2024