Tuesday, Thursday 11 am – 12:15 pm
Williams 110
This course explores the literature of Queen Victoria’s reign, an era very close to our own in its interests and concern, and a period that prompted a strong reaction from later writers and artists. Students will read poetry, essays, fiction, and drama in this survey of some of the major figures of the time. The course also examines the explosion of print culture; the vexed divide between high and low culture; the literary negotiation of issues like voting rights, women’s role in society, and the growing British empire; and how Victorians became increasingly interested in the relationship between word and image. Authors include Browning (both), Tennyson, Dickens, George Eliot, Rossetti, Kipling, Arnold, Wilde.
Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 5, The Victorian Era
ed. Joseph Black et al, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-55111-613-6
902 pages, $56.95
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Oxford University Press
ISBN 978-0199536313
976 pages, $11.95
