Victorian Crime Fiction
Module Code: MELEN4VCF
Module Convenor: Professor Adrienne Gavin|
This option module is open to all MA students.
The module examines fiction drawn from the period 1837-1901 in which crime and criminals play a significant role. It considers chronologically development and change in Victorian crime fiction and involves critical analysis of the module texts and of connected cultural, historical, stylistic, thematic, theoretical, criminological, and critical issues involved in their interpretation. Crime in relation to, for example, criminal characters, gender and crime, types of crime, the police and the punishment of criminals are significant elements of the module. Student debate and scholarly exchange of views are integral to the module.Students' facility for independent research and sophisticated critical thought are enabled through devising, researching and writing an individual research essay.
Assessment
600 word research essay proposal (15%)
3,400 word research essay (85%)
Illustrative Module Texts
Students are advised not to buy books until the set texts for each year have been finalized.
Texts will be chosen from a list which may include but is not restricted to:
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-8)
Caroline Clive, Paul Ferroll (1855)
Mary Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1862)
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1859-60)
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)
Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886)