BA English Literature with Creative Writing

The idea of ‘happiness’ played a key role in Victorian culture. Novelists and social theorists both asked ‘What is happiness’ and ‘How is it to be achieved?’. This course explores the some of the ways in which Victorian culture answered these questions. In particular, it examines the debate between those who thought that happiness could be achieved through competition and individualism, and those who thought the co-operation provided the better route. The course examines three key ideologies from the first half of the nineteenth century – political economy, utilitarianism and co-operation – through their cultural manifestation in works by Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and Robert Owen. It also explores the ways in which ideas of competition and co-operation were revised in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, paying particular attention to the efforts of the Co-operative movement to construct an alternative to the indvidualistic, competitive culture fostered by industrial capitalism.

The aims of this course are:

- to introduce students to some of the debates surrounding the idea of 'happiness'

-to introduce students to the key ideas underpinning political economy, utilitarianism and Owenism/Co-operation;
- to analyse the ways in which those same ideas inform Victorian cultural production;
- to analyse the ways in which Victorian cultural production interrogates those same ideas;
- to examine the ways in which the co-operative movement attempted to create an alternative to the individualistic, competitive culture fostered by Victorian industrial capitalism;
- to read works in a range of different genres including fiction, poetry, the essay and journalism;
- to develop skills of critical thought and writing in relation to the concepts of co-operation, competition and happiness;
- to develop archival research skills through the individual research project;

This class will usually have a 1 hour lecture followed by a 2 hour seminar.  However, there will be the occasional 1 hour project-focused workshops in place of the lecture (as appropriate).
Materials including lecture slides, bibliographies, study questions, handouts, etc., will be posted on Canvas each week.  

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

- demonstrate a critical understanding of the key ideas underpinning political economy, utilitarianism and Owenism;
- demonstrate a critical understanding of the way in which those ideas inform concepts of co-operation, competition and happiness in Victorian culture;
- offer a critical analysis of the ways in which Victorian cultural production is both informed by and also interrogates these key ideas;
- demonstrate a critical understanding of the ways in which questions of gender and class problematise the debates surrounding happiness;
- demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of co-operative culture;
 

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

- think critically and make critical judgments about the key ideas underpinning concepts of co-operation, competition and happiness in Victorian culture
- analyse course texts with appropriate attention to both their 'ideological' and 'formal/generic' properties;
- identify and outline key problems and issues in the historical development of co-operative culture;
- identify and articulate the ways in which categories of gender and class inflect cultural thinking about happiness;
- develop and articulate a reasoned argument concerning the respective strengths and weaknesses of capitalist and co-operative culture.

- plan and execute independent research on a particular co-operative periodical and/or other material from the National Co-operative Archive;
- demonstrate an ability to communicate their research findings to an extra-academic audience;
- demonstrate an ability to communicate their research findings to an academic audience.

-demonstrate team-working skills

- retrieve, sift, organise, synthesise and critically evaluate primary material from different archival resources;  

- retrieve, sift, organise, synthesise and critically evaluate secondary material from a range  of different sources, including library, electronic, and online resources;

1. Essay (50%)

2. Group Research Project (50%)
 

 Charlotte Bronte, Shirley (1849)

Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)

Lynne Segal, Radical Happiness (2017) 

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

• Find out more from student finance
• Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
• Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
• Many students work part-time or complete a student internship