Victorian Women’s Fiction: Texts and Contexts

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit One: Publishing and women in the Victorian period

• Victorian social contexts.

Unit Two: Getting the most out of Victorian fiction

• Using contextual material, analysing literary fiction.

Unit Three: ‘The Woman Question’ and Victorian fiction I

• George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

Unit Four: Women and Independence

• George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

Unit Five: The social-problem novel

• Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton.

Unit Six: Fiction of sensation and the supernatural

• Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret; Braddon’s ‘Eveline’s Visitant’; Margaret Oliphant, ‘The Library Window’.

Unit Seven: Women and wives in Victorian fiction

• Coventry Patmore, The Angel in the House; Margaret Oliphant, ‘A Story of a Wedding Tour’.

Unit Eight: Approaches to Victorian women’s writing

• An overview of the contemporary and recent reception of Victorian women’s writing.

Unit Nine: Working women in Victorian fiction

• The governess – Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre.

Unit Ten: Fin de siècle: ‘The new woman’ and ‘the girl of the period’

• Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins; Women writers and ‘decadence’.

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.

Level and demands

This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.

This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here. 

Course aims

• To introduce students to the range and a representative sample of forms and styles of fiction written by women in the period 1832-1900.
• Place the texts studied in their cultural contexts.
• Enable students to gain a greater appreciation and enjoyment of the texts studied.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate, you must be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit One: Publishing and women in the Victorian period

• Victorian social contexts.

Unit Two: Getting the most out of Victorian fiction

• Using contextual material, analysing literary fiction.

Unit Three: ‘The Woman Question’ and Victorian fiction I

• George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

Unit Four: Women and Independence

• George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

Unit Five: The social-problem novel

• Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton.

Unit Six: Fiction of sensation and the supernatural

• Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret; Braddon’s ‘Eveline’s Visitant’; Margaret Oliphant, ‘The Library Window’.

Unit Seven: Women and wives in Victorian fiction

• Coventry Patmore, The Angel in the House; Margaret Oliphant, ‘A Story of a Wedding Tour’.

Unit Eight: Approaches to Victorian women’s writing

• An overview of the contemporary and recent reception of Victorian women’s writing.

Unit Nine: Working women in Victorian fiction

• The governess – Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre.

Unit Ten: Fin de siècle: ‘The new woman’ and ‘the girl of the period’

• Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins; Women writers and ‘decadence’.

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.

Teaching methods

• Each topic will be introduced by notes or by direction to suitable websites.
• Students will be directed to key passages in the fiction, and offered suggested topics for discussion.
• Students will be directed to key passages in contemporary non-fiction texts, and offered suggested topics for discussion in relation to the fiction.
• Students will be directed to further resources, including the Victorian Web, pages on Victorian language, customs, and fashion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will understand:

• The kinds of obstacles facing women authors in the Victorian period.
• The kinds of educational and employment opportunities available and not available to women in the Victorian period.
• The ways in which ‘the woman question’ was represented and debated in print in the Victorian period.
• The differences between genres in which women authors published in the Victorian period.
• The distinctive features of the writing of the authors studied.
• Some issues involved in the formal study of women’s writing.

By the end of the course, students will have developed the following:

• Improved skills in close critical analysis of literary texts.
• Improved skills in the use of contextual material in the study of literary texts.

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

Octavia Cox

Dr Octavia Cox completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford, has taught and lectured at the University of Oxford, the University of Nottingham, and elsewhere, and has published various peer-reviewed chapters and articles.  Her first monograph, Alexander Pope and Romantic Poetics, is forthcoming.  She is currently researching a book provisionally titled Jane Austen and Genre.

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

Level and demands

This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.

This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here. 

Fees

Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form.

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