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Academic Year 2005/2006


Literature and Politics in Nineteenth Century Britain
ENGL 307 FA

This course examines the interaction between politics and literature in England over the course of the nineteenth century, focusing on issues of class, gender, and nation. The poetry, novels, and prose we will study all sought to educate their readers, to change their minds, and to spark political action. The course explores the ways in which these didactic goals coalesced and conflicted with other literary concerns, thereby connecting issues of politics with those of aesthetics.

At the root of the texts we will explore lies the desire to expose injustice, whether in the form of economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, or parliamentary corruption. The texts perform this exposure in different ways. Poems such as Shelley's "The Mask of Anarchy" and Davenport's "Legitimacy Unmasked" unmask injustice through vivid imagery, allegorical narratives, and philosophical argument, while novels such as Gaskell's NORTH AND SOUTH use the geographical and class mobility of their heroes to expose the struggles of the working class. Morris's NEWS FROM NOWHERE and Carlyle's PAST AND PRESENT, on the other hand, expose the injustices of the contemporary world through portraits of utopian pasts and futures. We will explore all of these techniques-and many others-over the course of the semester.

MAJOR READINGS

Blake, Shelley, Scott, Disraeli, Gaskell, Trollope, Morris, working-class and women writers.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two short papers, two in-class presentations, final paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course fulfills the English department's historical knowledge requirements.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006


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