Title: THE VICTORIAN AGE

PRQ:

Major issues in the culture of nineteenth-century England: idealism, socialism, aestheticism, science and technology, and the fin de siècle.  The nineteenth century saw some of the most profound changes in daily life and work in history.  How did the revolutions in industry, urbanization, and nationalism affect the literature of the age--and of ages since?  The course will also cover the changing role of culture itself in the emerging modern world, surveying such authors as Carlyle, Browning, Tennyson, Arnold, Dickens, Mill, Shaw, Pater, and Wilde.  The emphasis will be on non-fiction prose, but there is also a considerable amount of poetry, a play, and two novels.  Lecture and discussion aimed at upper-level majors in English.  Not intended for students without prior experience in reading poetry.

Two papers (6-8 pages), final examination, and brief in-class quizzes on the reading.  Papers will be interpretive—no research.

Abrams, et. al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. II.; Dickens, Great Expectations; Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England; Morris, News from Nowhere; Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.