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Academic Year 2005/2006

Economies of Value in Victorian Britain
ENGL 314 FA

What's the relationship between the economic take-off that transformed Britain into an imperial power over the course of the nineteenth century, and the novels which literate Victorians read so avidly? This course will study value as a problem in representation. We will focus on economic forms of value, from money and commodities to the instruments of finance capital, and literary forms of value, from specific tropes like metaphor and metonymy to the moral economies worked up in novels. Why are bankers and financiers so often the villains of Victorian novels, and why, if the love of money is taken to be the source of evil, are the protagonists so often rewarded with wealth? Why the endless fascination with money, money, money?

MAJOR READINGS

Dickens, OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
Trollope, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
Collins, ARMADALE
Selections from Weber, Marx, Simmel, Goux
Other readings to be announced

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Short explications, two 5-page papers, one 10-page paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

The novels are long - very long. The non-fictional texts are complex. All the reading will be demanding. It will all be very interesting.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

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

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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