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(ΛΥ01) -  Βασιλική Μαρκίδου

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FALL SEMESTER 2026-27

FIRST SEMESTER COURSE: ENGLISH FICTION

Section 3: (Π-Ω)

Monday, 9:00-12:00

 

Amphitheater: 427 (4th floor, School of Philosophy Building) Instructor: Vassiliki Markidou (Associate Professor) Office hour: Monday 12:00-13:00 (or by appointment via email), office 903, 9th floor, School of Philosophy Building e-mail address: vmarkidou@enl.uoa.gr Office tel.: 210-7277468  e-class: https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/ENL310/ (to register use the password englishfictionlc1)

 

 Course Description

The course examines various fictional genres in a diachronic framework and in relation to their relevant historical and social parameters. Students will become familiarized with the basic elements of fiction, a vital tool in analyzing the specific literary genre, as well as with a short survey of the genealogy of fiction. We will also analyze excerpts from two English novels of the eighteenth century; a nineteenth-century novel; and three twentieth-century short stories, with a consistent focus on close reading.

 

Primary Texts

Novels

1        Daniel Defoe, Roxana (excerpt)

2        Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (the Lilliput chapters)

3        Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Short Stories

4        Katherine Mansfield, “Miss Brill”

5        James Joyce, “Araby”

6        D. H. Lawrence, “Odour of Chrysanthemums”

Please make sure you have read the allocated texts before coming to class. Your active participation is both required and expected. Please bring the appropriate text to class every week.

 

Suggested Bibliography (on reserve in the library)

·         Berkman, Sylvia. Katherine Mansfield: A Critical Study. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951.

·         Draper, Ronald P. D. H. Lawrence: The Critical Heritage. London & Kegan Paul, 1970.

·         Eagleton, Terry. The English Novel: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.

·         Gravil, Richard, ed. Gulliver’s Travels: A Casebook. Hampshire: Macmillan, 1974.

·         Johnson, Ray. Studying Fiction. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.

·         Kennedy, J. X. and Dana Goia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. New York: Longman, 1998.

·         Mee, Jon. The Cambridge Introduction to Charles Dickens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 

·         Purchase, Sean. Key Concepts in Victorian Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

·         Watt, Ian. The rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. London: Chatto & Windus, 1957.

 

                                                             Week-by-week schedule

(do make sure that you check out your e-class announcements on a regular basis for any changes)

Week 1 (28/09/2026)	Introduction: What is fiction? The development of fiction (historical/cultural framework) Ø  Read “The Birth of the English Novel”, available in the e-class Documents Types of fiction: memoir, epistolary, picaresque, epistolary, sentimental, gothic, historical, bildungsroman
Week 2 (5/10/2026)	Elements of fiction/ Narrative techniques Point of view, Character, setting, Tone & Style, Theme, Symbol
Week 3 (12-10-2026)	Daniel Defoe, from Roxana Ø  Read the excerpt available in the e-class Documents
Week 4 19/10-2026)	Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Part 1: Voyage to Lilliput Ø  Read chapters 1-4
Week 5 (26-10-2026)	Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Part 1: Voyage to Lilliput (continued) Ø  Read chapters 5-8
Week 6 (2-11-2026)	1st in-class exercise on Gulliver’s Travels (see option 2 below) Introduction to nineteenth-century fiction: The Victorian Period Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Ø  Read chapters 1-20
Week 7 (9-11-2026)]	Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Ø  Read chapters 20-40
Week 8 23/11-2026)	Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Ø  Read chapters 40-end
Week 9 (30-11-2026)	2nd in-class exercise on Great Expectations (see Option 2 below) Introduction to twentieth-century fiction: Modernism
Week 10 (8-12-2026)	Katherine Mansfield, “Miss Brill” Ø  Read the short story
Week 11 (15-12-2026)	James Joyce, “Araby” Ø  Read the short story
Week 12 (21-12-2026)	D. H. Lawrence, “Odour of Chrysanthemums” Ø  Read the short story
Week 13 (11-1-2027)	Revision/Conclusion

 

Learning objectives and outcomes

Students will:

·         Become familiarized with elements of fiction as well as with the stylistic and thematic features of English short stories and novels

·         Become cognizant of the historical, cultural and political contexts of English fiction (from the 18^th to the 20^th century)

·         Develop and improve their critical thinking and reading skills

·         Team up with their co-students to produce exciting and persuasive interpretations of English fiction

·         Engage in close reading of fiction both orally and on the level of two-in class exercises for which they will receive detailed feedback

 

These skills are valuable and necessary across a wide range of academic and professional fields.

 

Course assessment

Option 1

·         Final exam (two hours) in the January exam period: for 100% of the final grade

In this exam, students will be requested to respond to two questions, both of which will require close reading and argumentation. In Part A (50%), they will choose one question on either Great Expectations or Gulliver’s Travels and in Part B (50%), they will choose one of two questions (on two of the remaining texts on the syllabus by Defoe, Mansfield, Joyce, Lawrence).

OR

Option 2

ONLY for English Department students with 2026 entry date- and students from other departments taking this course for the FIRST TIME.

Students will need to fulfil two requirements:

·      1. Two in-class exercises at the beginning of November and just before its end (close reading of passages from Gulliver’s Travels and Great Expectations, respectively) for which they will be given a mark and detailed feedback. The sum from their two in-class exercises will form the 50% of their final grade. They will need to earn at least 2,5 points out of 5 from their two in-class exercises.

·      2. Final exam (two hours) in the January exam period: for 50% of their final grade. In the final exam, they will answer only one question, choosing one out of two questions on fictional texts by Defoe, Mansfield, Joyce, Lawrence.

 

Active class participation (through questions, answers, participation in class writing activities, and general discussion) will also be taken into consideration for extra credit.

 

Towards the end of the semester you will be given the chance to evaluate the class yourselves.

 

 

Appendix A — The Weekly Close-Reading Warm-Up

Most weeks we begin with a short exercise, the low-stakes counterpart to the marked one. The routine:

— I hand out one short passage from the week’s text.

— Eight minutes, working alone: annotate it for one named element or technique only. Constraint is the point — a single lens, done well.

— In groups of three: two minutes comparing what you each noticed.

— During class discussion, you offer your insights to the rest of us.

The warm-up is not marked. It exists so that the in-class exercises are not your first cold attempt, and so that close reading becomes a habit rather than an examination stunt.

 

Appendix B — Close-Reading Rubric

This rubric applies to the exercises and to the close-reading component of the final examination. Each exercise is a timed close reading of a single passage: a claim, argued from the text, not a summary. Feedback will refer to these criteria.

Criterion	What strong work does
Selection of detail	Chooses the passage’s most telling features — a shift in narrative voice, a loaded word, an image, a turn of syntax, a change of tense — rather than summarising events. Quotes precisely and sparingly.
Analysis of technique	Names how the writing works (characterization, setting, point of view, style etc.) and shows the effect, not just the label.
Argument	Advances a claim about the passage. Does not paraphrase or describe; does not list devices without a point.
From detail to significance	Connects the close observation to something larger — character, theme, the text’s method or its historical moment — without over-reaching beyond what the passage supports.
Expression	Writes in clear, controlled English; organises the response; uses critical vocabulary accurately.

 

 

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Τετάρτη 8 Ιανουαρίου 2014