The Novel in the Romantic Period: Gender, Gothic, and the Nation (UG)

This course surveys the novel in Britain at a crucial stage in its development, namely the decades after the French Revolution in 1789. In this period the novel’s formal resources were developed in innovative ways in response to the intense ideological struggle prompted by this event, raising radical questions about women’s role in society, the future of slavery, repression and political violence; new conceptions of national history and culture underpinned reaction against this revolutionary spirit. The course juxtaposes feminine and masculine versions of the Gothic, ‘Jacobin’ and ‘Anti-Jacobin’ fictions, domestic novels and historical novels, to introduce students to this period’s transformation of the scope and style of the novel as a genre.   Credit level: 10 Year taken: Year 4 Undergraduate SCQF credits: 20