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Reading the Victorians
ENGL245 SP

Crosslistings: WMST255

Why read the Victorians? To know more about how an industrial, urban, commercial, imperial nation imagines itself; to understand better how middle-class culture is established and comes to work all by itself; to explore the power of representations of sexual difference--the famous separate spheres for 19th-century men and women--and of the great divide which opens between the public and the private. In other words, to better know ourselves. Our primary focus will be on novels. Why ask these questions through literature? To better understand the significance of the complex pleasures of novelistic representation. To learn better to read.

MAJOR READINGS

Novels by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot and others. Selections from newspaper journalism, including Henry Mayhew's letters on "London Labour and the London Poor." Essays, including selections from Carlyle. Readings from the critical literature on the Victorian novel, including Nancy Armstrong, Mary Poovey, and Catherine Gallagher.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

One 8 page paper; one 15 page paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course will depend on class discussion and oral presentations. You must be prepared to keep up with a heavy reading load.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

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

Prerequisites: NONE

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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