Scenes of Learning: Education in the Novel of Development Q3128
Second year option, 15 credits
Tutor: Martin Ryle
Module outline, autumn 2014
Aims and themes
The Bildungsroman (novel of development) often includes scenes of learning and
instruction, formal and informal. This module examines the theme of education in seven
books published between 1857 and 2005. We begin by reading two nineteenth-century
novels in which that theme is central, Charlotte Bronte's The Professor (1857) and
Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1896). We will assess the ways in which education
contributes to the central character's development and consider how it is related to other
dimensions of experience, including family relationships, changes in class and social
status, sexual and erotic life, and the search for personal, intellectual and creative
autonomy. Pursuing these themes into the twentieth century, we then read E. M.
Forster’s The Longest Journey (1907) and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own
(1927). In this founding text of modern feminism, Woolf’s critique of the forms and
institutions of education makes artful use of fictional scenes and episodes.
In the second part of the module, we move forward to the later twentieth century.
By this time time higher education was becoming much more widely available, although
most people in Britain still did not (and do not) go to University. Both David Lodge’s Nice
Work (1975) and Ali Smith's Like (1997) focus on the scope and purposes of the
University as a social institution as well as on its meanings to the protagonists. Our final
text is Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go, a disconcerting fable in which
‘student’ and ‘clone’ are interchangeable terms and which asks fundamental questions
about education’s meaning for the individual and society today.
Assessment
The assessed essay (3500 words, submitted after the module) may focus in depth on
the work of one or two of the writers studied or may pursue broader thematic questions.
Further guidance on what is required will be available during the module. See also the
note on week 7 in the week-by-week seminar guide below.
Seminars
Seminar work will centre on close reading and analysis of the seven novels, primarily but
not exclusively attending to their presentation of the educational theme. The module will
also stimulate general reflection on the institutions and meanings of education in
changing historical and social contexts. Students will be welcome to bring relevant
discussions of educational policy to the attention of the class, and will be encouraged to
reflect on their own engagement in cultural and literary education in the setting of
contemporary Britain.
All seminars will include close reading of scenes and chapters; some passages
for special study will be agreed in advance, and some of this work will be done in small
groups within the seminar. In some weeks, students will be invited to give short informal
presentations (not assessed) to introduce discussion of specified passages and/or
topics. Further detail about each week’s work may be given in advance in seminars and
by email.
Week-by-week list of texts
Week 1
Charlotte Bronte, The Professor
Weeks 2 and 3
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Weeks 4 and 5
E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey
Week 6
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Week 7 – Reading week and consideration of essay topics
There will be no seminar this week. You should use the time (a) to read or re-read the
texts for the second part of the term and (b) to begin reflecting on the topic for your
assessed essay.
Essay topics should be finalised by the start of week 12. There will be a list of
questions, but you’re more than welcome to find a title of your own (agreed with the
module tutor) if the set questions don’t cover the themes you want to write about. You
are welcome to arrange to see the tutor in his office hour once you are ready to discuss
your essay: this can be at any time from week 8 onwards and should not be later than
week 11. Please note that tutors will not be available for consultations about essays
once the module is over.
Week 8
David Lodge, Nice Work
Week 9
Ali Smith, Like
Week 10
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Week 11
Review of module themes. There will be a handout to guide our work , which will be
done partly in small groups. This seminar will look back over the module as a whole and
will help you develop your ideas for the assessed essay.
Week 12
Work in progress presentations based on student essay topics.
Scenes of Learning – Reading List
Core reading: books for purchase
Bronte, Charlotte (published posthumously, 1856) The Professor
(In print in paperback, Arcturus, London; you may prefer to look on Amazon or eBay for
a second-hand edition with footnotes)
Hardy, Thomas (1896) Jude the Obscure
(Scholarly editions available in paperback include Penguin and Oxford World’s Classics)
Forster, E.M. (1907) The Longest Journey
(In print, Penguin)
Woolf, Virginia (1929) A Room of One’s Own
(available in various editions; recommended is the Oxford World’s Classics paperback,
ed. and introd. Morag Schiach, which also includes Woolf’s essay Three Guineas)
Lodge, David (1975) Nice Work
(In print, Penguin)
Smith, Ali (1997) Like
(In print, Virago paperback)
Ishiguro, Kazuo (2005) Never Let Me Go
(In print, Faber paperback)
Recommended reading
There are numerous books, articles and critical anthologies devoted to Bronte, Hardy,
Forster, Woolf and Ishiguro: if you decide to write on one or more of these authors, you
should spend some time in the Library and online researching useful material. The
Bibliographies of scholarly editions of these texts will also make a useful starting point.
For Lodge and Smith, there is less critical commentary, but there will be
background material – reviews, interviews, news items – available online. Be sure to
reference this fully and exactly. Always avoid cutting and pasting anything from online
sources into your own work.
For articles and other materials on educational policy and its history, the
Education section of the Library is very useful. Much information about recent and
current policy can be accessed in online journals. A recent book which contains useful
bibliographical and other material is
Tamsin Hinton-Smith (ed.) (2012) Widening participation in higher education: casting the
net wide? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
A useful overview of developments in Britain since the Second World War is
Ken Jones (2002) Education in Britain: 1944 to the Present Cambridge: Polity
If you look in the shelves at these shelfmarks (LP 12000 for Hinton-Smith and LA 5005
for Jones) you will find many more books on similar topics.
The module Study Direct site will include a facility allowing students to exchange
bibliographical suggestions and links to web-based materials.
Most of the books listed below are general cultural-historical studies of the themes of
Bildung, learning and social mobility, especially as these have figured in the novel. Most
of them have extensive bibliographies that will help you find further books and articles on
specific topics.
Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch and Elizabeth Langland (1983) The Voyage in: Fictions
of Female Development Hanover: University of New England
Patricia Alden (1986) Social mobility in the English Bildungsroman : Gissing, Hardy,
Bennett, and Lawrence Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press
Matthew Arnold (2006; first published 1868) Culture and Anarchy Oxford: Oxford
University Press (also available in other editions)
Keating, Peter (1989) The Haunted Study: a social history of the English novel, 18751914 London: Secker and Warburg
Franco Moretti (transl. A. Sbragia) (2002) The Way of the World: the Bildungsroman in
European Culture London: Verso
Bruce Robbins (2007) Upward Mobility and the Common Good: Toward a Literary
History of the Welfare State Princeton: Princeton University Press
Jonathan Rose (2010) The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes London and
NY: Yale UP
Martin Ryle and Kate Soper (2002) To Relish the Sublime? Culture and self-realization
in postmodern times London: Verso
Raymond Williams (1961) The Long Revolution London: Chatto
Raymond Williams, ed. John McIlroy and Sallie Westwood (1993) Border Country:
Raymond Williams in Adult Education Leicester: National Institute for Adult
Continuing Education