Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier

ENM3720

Module Title

Representing Disability: Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century

Academic Year

2025/2026

Co-ordinator

Dr Lucy Thompson

Semester

Semester 2

Other Staff

Dr Lucy Thompson

Course Delivery

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Written Assignment English Literature: 1 x 5,000-word comparative essay Creative Writing: 3,000-word creative piece and a 2,000-word commentary	100%
Supplementary Assessment	Written Assignment English Literature: 1 x 5,000-word comparative essay Creative Writing: 3,000-word creative piece and a 2,000-word commentary	100%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Generate their own comparative critical and/or creative readings of disability in literature from the long nineteenth century (1789–1914)

Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the literary, cultural and philosophical concerns of disability in literature from the long nineteenth century (1789–1914)

Engage meaningfully with relevant critical debates and developments in the field of and Critical Disability Studies

Discuss disability in a critically informed, focused and well-structured manner

Brief description

This module examines how disability was portrayed and debated in literature from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century (c. 1789–1914). Students will engage with canonical and lesser-known texts that depict a range of disabilities – from physical impairments and chronic illnesses to deafness, blindness, mental health issues, and speech impediments. Drawing on both historical perspectives and contemporary disability studies, we will explore how these representations have shaped (and were shaped by) prevailing ideas of normalcy, morality, and identity, and how the long nineteenth century imagined, negotiated, and contested norms of bodily and mental ability.

Aims

1. Examine the ways disability was conceptualised, represented, and contested across the long nineteenth century, from Romantic to Victorian and early Edwardian contexts.
2. Introduce and apply core disability studies frameworks to literature.
3. Explore intersections between disability, class, gender, and other identity categories, underscoring how social factors influenced (and continue to influence) perceptions of embodiment.
4. Develop critical reading and research skills through close textual analysis, discussion, and engagement with relevant scholarly debates.

Content

Session 1: Foundations – Disability in Context

Session 2: Pre-Disability Concepts in Romantic Literature
(Extracts from William Godwin's, Mandeville, 1817).

Session 3: Blindness and Non-Visual Culture – Part A
Session 4: Blindness and Non-Visual Culture – Part B
(William Wordsworth, 'The Blind Highland Boy' 1815; extracts from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1818; Arthur Symons, 'The Blind Beggar', 1892)

Session 5: ‘Sensational Deviance’: Deafness in Victorian Literature – Part A
Session 6: ‘Sensational Deviance’: Deafness in Victorian Literature – Part B
(Harriet Martineau’s Principle and Practice 1827; Charles Dickens, Dr Marigold, 1865).

Session 7: Mental Health and Disability
(Frances Hodson Burnett, The Secret Garden, 1911)

Session 8: Mind and Body
(Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886).

Session 9: Stammering and Speech – Part A
(Martin Tupper, 'The Stammerer's Complaint' 1838)

Session 10: Stammering and Speech – Part B
(James Malcolm Rymer, The Unspeakable; or, The Life and Adventures of a Stammerer, 1855)

Module Skills

Skills Type	Skills details
Co-ordinating with others	Students will form a learning community within their seminar group
Creative Problem Solving	Students will be required to write either an essay or a creative piece and commentary which develops their creative problem-solving skills.
Critical and analytical thinking	Students will be supported in developing their critical and analytical thinking skills in seminars and in their written work.
Professional communication	Students will be supported in developing their communication skills in seminars and in their written work.
Real world sense	Students will be supported in applying the insights gained during the module to the world around them.
Reflection	Students will be encouraged to reflect on the texts studied, the critical and cultural contexts they were produced in and in which we are studying them, and on their own practice.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7