1800 - 1914

The strand convenors are Professor Stephen Gill (Lincoln College) and Professor Fiona Stafford (Somerville College). Many members of the English Faculty work on literature of this period, and there is a very lively community of graduate students researching Romantic and Victorian topics. Graduates and Faculty members come together at the many research seminars in our period that are held over the term: 'Restoration to Reform', 'Romantic Realignments', 'Victorian Literature', 'Comparative Literature', and 'Fin-de-Siècle'.

Faculty members with interests in this period include:  Dr Peter Conrad, Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Dr Sos Eltis, Prof. Nick Halmi, Dr Susan Jones, Professor Lucy Newlyn, Dr Matthew Reynolds, Dr Nicholas Shrimpton, Dr John Sloan, Dr Helen Small, Professor Kathryn Sutherland.

Oxford's library and archive resources in this period are second to none. There are outstanding collections in the Bodleian Library of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books and manuscripts, including the Abinger Collection which holds manuscripts of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Godwin's notebooks, and many other papers belonging to the Shelley circle. There are also extremely rich collections of nineteenth-century periodicals and ephemera, including the extensive holdings of the John Johnson Collection. The English Faculty Library is also well stocked with relevant books and journals.

A. Literature, Contexts and Approaches (Core Course).

This strand’s A course aims to broaden and deepen your knowledge of the literature in the period 1800-1914, encouraging you to extend your understanding of the Romantic and Victorian eras and their culture, and to explore your existing interests. It ranges across genres, engaging with theatrical works, poetry, and prose writing as it developed over the 120 years covered in the course. The A Course is taught as a weekly seminar that runs over eight weeks in Michaelmas Term; it is designed to provide a solid foundation for advanced literary study.

B. Bibliography, Theories of Text, History of the Book, Manuscript Studies.

This is a range of lectures and seminars in each of the first two terms designed to train students for research in English. Within this strand, there will be classes on palaeography, offering students the skills essential to exploring the enormous riches of Oxford 's manuscript collections, and on book history, bibliography, and textual criticism.

Those wishing to pursue doctoral study in English at Oxford must complete two courses under B (though there is provision for these courses to be picked up in the first year of research).

C. Special Options.

Special Option courses are one-term courses on specialist themes usually relating to the current research interests of the teacher(s).

C options for this strand over the past few years have included: ‘Oscar Wilde and Late Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture', ‘Romantic Autobiography', ‘Wordsworth' and ‘Victorian Sexualities', ‘Hazlitt', ‘Writing the Nation: 1750-1830', ‘Victorian Emotion', ‘Dickens and Victorian Travel' and ‘The Visionary Gleam: God, Nature, Man in Poets from Cowper to Hopkins'.

Students normally take one Special Option in each of the first two terms, but may take up to four if they decide to opt out of the B course.

The special option courses present an excellent opportunity for you to develop your research interests. You are not constrained to follow option courses within your designated period, and indeed, option courses often traverse the boundaries of the broad periods.

D. Dissertation.

All students write a 10,000 word dissertation on a subject of their choice, but related to the work they have been doing over the year. You will be assigned to a member of Faculty who will act as your supervisor.

Assessment

In addition to the dissertation, you will submit three essays of 5-7,000 words – one at the end of the first term, and two at the end of the second term – relating to the B and C courses that you have taken.

Students normally take all four components to fulfil the requirements of the degree. All course work will be completed by the end of the second term (Hilary Term), leaving the summer term (Trinity Term) for the writing of the dissertation, which is submitted in early June.