British Literature - The Victorian Period
This course provides a survey of important works of prose, poetry, and fiction from the Victorian period (1832-1901). Authors may include Tennyson, the Brownings, Arnold, the Brontës, Hopkins, Hardy, Newman, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot.
Outcomes: Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze and interpret a variety of works studied in the course, and to articulate an awareness of the social, political, and historical contexts that inform an understanding of these works.
This course provides a survey of important works of prose, poetry, and fiction from the Victorian period (1832-1901). Authors may include Tennyson, the Brownings, Arnold, the Brontës, Hopkins, Hardy, Newman, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot.
Outcomes: Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze and interpret a variety of works studied in the course, and to articulate an awareness of the social, political, and historical contexts that inform an understanding of these works.
Pre-requisites: UCWR 110 and one 200-level English course.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the British empire had expanded its presence across the globe, through economic, military, political, and also cultural means. Even as British culture swallowed up objects and practices from around the world, it also shored up the boundaries around Britishness ever more firmly, selling Britishness as a major global export, popular even today. In this survey of literature from, roughly, the period of Queen Victoria¿s reign (1837-1901), we will examine how Victorian culture represented itself and the empire. We will discuss how literary works produced and contested ideas around class, race, gender, sexuality, and labor that continue to shape our world today. We will also identify the literary trends of the period, from the crystallization of the realist mode to the development of new genres like detective and science fiction. Texts will include: Mary Seacole¿s Wonderful Adventures, Elizabeth Gaskell¿s Mary Barton, Charles Dickens¿s A Christmas Carol, Robert Louis Stevenson¿s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and others. Assignments may include oral presentations, close reading essays, and written exams.
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