Jane Austen and the Development of the Novel Form



Overview

There are few novelists as famous as Jane Austen (1775-1817). The enduring popularity of her six major works has seen her characters spill out from the page onto stage and screen - both TV and film - again and again. Her protagonists have been portrayed by such big screen names as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Colin Firth and Ewan McGregor to name just a few. Even Lawrence Olivier has played Mr Darcy on screen. The sheer bulk of literary scholarship on her work is beyond impressive. Bumper stickers with 'I'd rather be reading Jane Austen' testify to her ubiquitous presence in popular culture. Sequels and homages to her work continue.

Yet she lived quietly and fairly comfortably more than two hundred years ago and wrote four of her famous works in an intense period of just five years. She enjoyed a small measure of celebrity – enough for the Prince Regent to request (via his librarian) that she dedicate Emma to him in glorification of his name. She was proud of her status as a professional author especially since money was tight after the death of her father, and financial instability was a feature of her family life. But what was it about Austen's writing that distinguished her from her predecessors? What did she do with the new literary form of the novel that was so groundbreaking?

In this course, we delve into all six of the major works of Jane Austen whilst focusing in more detail on Northanger Abbey (1817), Emma (1815), and Persuasion (1817). We consider how Jane Austen so innovatively developed the new literary form of the novel building on a practice of authorial experimentation exhibited by earlier eighteenth-century novelists. We analyse extracts from the texts using emerging characteristics of the novel form such as narrative technique, characterisation and the referencing of other literary genres. We explore how she used the medium to engage with contemporary, social, cultural and philosophical discourses on, for example, the changing social order, power relations in the domestic sphere, the acquisition and deployment of knowledge, and the cultural and philosophical shift from rationalist (Enlightenment) tenets to Romanticism during the period. We also reflect on her life and times to give context and briefly survey her phenomenal and enduring legacy in academic studies and in popular culture.

Programme details

Course starts: 4 Oct 2024

Week 1: Biographical overview and some historical contexts, including a consideration of the works of earlier novelists. 

Week 2: Northanger Abbey

Week 3: Northanger Abbey continued

Week 4: Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice

Week 5: Emma 

Week 6: Emma continued

Week 7: Mansfield Park

Week 8: Persuasion

Week 9: Persuasion continued

Week 10: Cultural impact, adaptations and continuing relevance.

Digital Certification

To complete the course and receive a certificate, you will be required to attend at least 80% of the classes on the course and pass your final assignment. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £285.00
Take this course for CATS points £30.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Mary Gifford

Dr Mary Gifford has had a career in both national newspapers and in pharmaceuticals. She completed her MA in English Literature whilst working full-time. She gained her PhD from Oxford Brookes for her thesis on medical discourses in the eighteenth-century novel.

Course aims

To develop an understanding of the contribution made by Jane Austen to the development of the novel as a literary form.

Course Objectives:

1) To introduce students to the main themes, narrative strategies and experimentalism of the major works of Jane Austen

2) Exploring some eighteenth-century contexts in order to examine how Austen engaged with a spectrum of contemporary issues of concern to her readers

3) To encourage students to develop their own perspective on how and why Austen's novels have had such a significant and enduring cultural impact.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of ten seminars. Each seminar will begin with an introduction by the tutor on a selected topic which will be opened up to group discussion in which student participation is encouraged in s supportive environment. Students may be asked to read text extracts singly or in pairs and then organise their thoughts into brief and informal presentations to the group. Tutor handouts will be provided for most sessions to give background material and to pose questions for discussion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

1) Demonstrate an enhanced understanding of the how Jane Austen drew on the works of earlier authors and experimented with a range of techniques to develop the novel as a literary form.

2) To have a deeper appreciation of how the novels' themes engaged with a range of contemporay debates of interest to the reader.

3) To have developed their ability to formulate their ideas around the novels of Jane Austen, both orally and in writing.

Assessment methods

Students will be asked to submit one single piece of work for assessment of up to 1500 words at the end of the course, responding to one of a choice of questions set by the tutor. They will also be asked to submit a shorter informal piece of work -non-assessed - of up to 500 words or to deliver a short presentation during the 10-week duration of the course, offering students an opportunity to gauge their understanding and progress.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

Application

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment Form (Word) or Enrolment Form (Pdf)

Level and demands

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support