Reading the City: The Life and Writing of Charles Dickens
This online course focuses on the life and writing of Charles Dickens within the context of 19th-century London. Dickens lived in London most of his life, growing from an impoverished child to a publicly fêted, but often privately troubled, writer. The city which shaped his life also gave form to his work in complex and fascinating ways. The novels picture this great metropolis vividly. They can also be seen to use it as an allegorical map through which human relationships of all kinds are explored.
During the first two weeks of the course students will be provided with two introductory units which examine literary texts in English, from the 16th to the 20th century, in order to show how cities from Babylon to Bombay are culturally constructed and interpreted. These two weeks are also designed to develop basic skills of textual analysis, and to give new students some practice in independent critical reading.
On turning to Dickens in the third week, we will begin exploring his urban context through contemporary materials. Ways of reading Dickens’s distinctive style will be discussed through the use of extracts and essays, as well as close readings of four novels in which which the London setting plays a crucial part: Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend.
Delivery: Distance Learning (Online)
Deadline for Registrations: Thursday 29th October 2009
NB: Late entrants will be able to work through and catch up on the material they have missed - or they can skip the missed weeks and concentrate on the material at the point where they join the course - but unfortunately we cannot offer fee reductions or course extensions for late entrants.
Course overview
Reading list
Tutor details
How to register
Course preparation
Syllabus Plan
- This is the order in which the course material will be studied:
- Introduction to Literature and the City; Classics to Romantics
- 1780s to 1980s: Industrial Realities; Urban Experiences
- Dickens's London; Introducing Dickens's Fiction
- Dickens's Young Life; Issues of Biography
- The Rising Novelist; Oliver Twist
- 'The Inimitable'; Dickens's Short Prose
- Dickens's Later Years; Issues of Autobiography
- London Themes and Dickens's Later Novels
- Beginning Bleak House; London as Maze
- Little Dorrit; Prison and Freedom in London
- Our Mutual Friend; London and the River of Life
- Overview: Dickens in London, London in Dickens
Learning / Teaching Methods
This course is delivered via the internet using an online educational environment called WebCT. Students will be given a username and password to log in to the course. A 'unit' of course material will be released every week for students to work through and class discussions on the material will take place in the online forum.
Class discussions are asynchronous - i.e. students do not need to be online at a 'set' time - they can leave and collect messages from the online discussion environment at a time suitable for them.
A chat room facility is also available. This is entirely optional, but students can arrange a mutually convenient time to communicate with each other 'instantly', by means of this facility, if they would like more immediate contact with others studying this subject.
Assessment
As this course is non-credit-bearing there are no exams or assessments.
Intended Outcomes
By the end of the module students will be expected to be able to:
Subject Specific Skills:
- Show a reasonable awareness of different constructions of the city in English literature.
- Form reasoned arguments and opinions about the relationship of historical, geographical and biographical information to the interpretation of individual literary texts.
- Identify and apply a range of approaches to the study of Dickens’s work.
Core Academic Skills:
- Demonstrate the ability to apply some basic methods of textual analysis.
- Use contextual information to inform an understanding of literary texts.
- Demonstrate awareness of ways in which literature can broaden understanding of a historical period.
Personal and Key Skills:
- Use a variety of learning resources.
- Organise information effectively.
- Communicate ideas and opinions in a written form.
