This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Thomas Hardy is one of the most important writers of the last two hundred years. Born into a family that was somewhere below working class, he went on to become one of the most articulate explorers of human emotion and circumstance, whose abilities to describe the natural world are unmatched by any of his peers. In later life, he had achieved so much in the world of letters that even royalty visited him at his home. In his early sixties, he retired from novel-writing and decided to have a go at publishing poetry, unaware that he would go on to have an equally long career as a poet and would become one of the preeminent writers of verse in the twentieth century.
In this module, you will discover why Hardy persists in being one of Britain's most important, modern and relevant writers. It will explore the range of Hardy's work including his novels, some short fiction poetry, prose, and autobiography, in the light of specifically nineteenth-century concerns such as the emergence of modernity, the impact of science, the beginnings of modernism, and the shift from the rural to the urban. Themes to be explored will include Hardy’s changing position as an author throughout his career; his development of forms of narrative; his views on history and philosophy; the representation of class; anxieties about social, cultural and economic change; the status of the human and the animal; his interest in evolutionary theory and its widespread effect; and finally, his career and position as a twentieth-century poet.
Total contact hours: 32
Private study hours: 268
Total study hours: 300
One learning journal (2,000 words) (40%)
One essay (3,000 words) (50% )
Seminar performance mark (10%)
Hardy, T. (2001). The Complete Poems. London: Palgrave.
Hardy, T. (2003). The Mayor of Casterbridge. London: Penguin Books.
Hardy, T. (2003). Tess of the D'Urbervilles. London: Penguin Books.
Hardy, T. (1988). The Woodlanders. London: Penguin Books.
Millgate, Michael. (2004). Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited. Oxford: OUP.
Tomalin, Claire. (2007). Thomas Hardy: a Time-Torn Man. London: Penguin Books.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate skills that will enable them to work theoretically and productively across a variety of 'texts' by Thomas Hardy - including genres such as autobiography, poetry, short fiction, and novels.
2. Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the different literary traditions and movements out of which Hardy's works arise (classic realism, sensation fiction, tragedy, lyric poetry).
3. Demonstrate a systematic understanding of a range of theoretical, aesthetic, and cultural perspectives towards the study of Hardy's prose and poetry.
4. Demonstrate complex and historically situated approaches to concepts such as nature, ecology, evolution, animal, and human, coupled with an appreciation of those terms' uncertainty and ambiguity.
5. Demonstrate a capacity to structure nuanced arguments centred on the close relationship between aesthetics, landscape and the body in literature.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Display an ability to apply close reading techniques to a range of literary texts and, to a lesser extent, paintings and films, and to make productive comparisons between them.
2. Apply the skills necessary for participating in group discussions and giving oral presentations.
3. Demonstrate an increased capacity for self-directed research and the ability to discuss, evaluate and creatively deploy secondary critical and theoretical perspectives.
4. Show an ability to construct original, articulate and well-substantiated arguments.
5. Set up and edit a blog to record a learning journal.
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