ENGLISH 731 Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë - Course Outlines

Course Prescription

A comparative study of two significant women novelists of the nineteenth century, exploring the similarities and differences among their works, as well as giving attention to their critical and popular reception history and their 'afterlife' in print and on screen.

Course Overview

While both Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë stand among the best-known and canonical English novelists, their work differs as greatly as the Georgian and Victorian eras in which each wrote. Brontë famously critiqued Austen’s style, meanly comparing her stories to walled, small, claustrophobic gardens and declaring a preference for more open and natural spaces. In spite of Brontë’s insistence upon difference, however, these two writers also have a lot in common. This course examines a selection of their works and considers how they responded to the literary and social environment of their time (from their juvenilia onwards). The course will pay attention to the reception history of their lives and works, from the nineteenth century to the present, such as the development of their reputations in academic and popular accounts, and screen adaptations of their fiction in the Hollywood-led resurgence of interest in both authors. Another important context is critical interest since the 1970s in the constraints affecting nineteenth-century women’s writing.

Course Requirements

Restriction: ENGLISH 752

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Gain insight into the contexts in which women novelists wrote in the first half of the nineteenth century. (Capability 1.1)
Analyse scholarship on canonical writers and evaluate some of the large body of critical writing that has been devoted to them. (Capability 1.1 and 2.2)
Analyse nineteenth-century fiction with intelligence and awareness of both critical and historical contexts. (Capability 1.2 and 4.1)

Assessments

Assessment Type	Percentage	Classification
Critical Reading	30%	Individual Coursework
Comparative Essay	60%	Individual Coursework
Oral presentation	10%	Individual Coursework
3 types	100%

Next offered

Probably last offering in 2021, as teacher retires at the end of that year.

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 30point course and students are expected to spend 20 hours per week involved in each 30 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 3 hours of lectures, plus 17 hours of reading and thinking about the content, and working on assignments.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

One three-hour class.

Learning Resources

Jane Austen: Love and Freindship, and Other Youthful Writings, ed. Christine Alexander (Penguin)
Mansfield Park, ed. Jane Stabler
Persuasion, ed. Deidre Shauna Lynch
Pride and Prejudice, ed. Fiona Stafford (last three all Oxford World's Classics)

The Brontës, Tales of Glass Town, Angria and Gondal: Selected Early Writings, ed. Christine Alexander
Charlotte Brontë: The Professor, ed. Margaret Smith
Shirley, ed. Margaret Smith
Villette, ed. Margaret Smith (all World's Classics)

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Digital Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Capability 1:	Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2:	Critical Thinking
Capability 4:	Communication and Engagement

ENGLISH 731 : Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë

Arts

2021 Semester Two (1215) (30 POINTS)