ENL 3251: Victorian Literature

Course Description:

This course will seek to define the contours of Victorian literature – its obsessions, tensions, particulars, and world views. Since literature reveals the workings of culture, we shall endeavor to create an ongoing conversation on the nature of those workings as we piece together the conversation in which the work itself participates through both in-class discussions and weekly written responses. We will focus on a number of issues that were vitally important to the Victorians and continue to be debated in our own time such as the Woman Question, class conflicts, Crisis of Faith, and degeneracy/decadence.

The goal of this course is to encourage an understanding of each individual work within the larger context of English literature and, by doing so, learn how to read poetry, drama, and fiction critically. In order to communicate these interpretations, we will also focus on how to write about literature. Thus the goal in this endeavor is to construct essays that discuss these genres in a thoughtful, convincing, and effective manner.

Images

Millias, Sir John Everett. CGFA: Cherry Ripe. 7 January 2004. http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/millais/p-millais9.htm.

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill. WebMusuem: Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights. 12 September 2003. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/whistler/.

Beardsley, Aubrey. Chris Snodgrass's Homepage: The Climax, from Salome. 7 January 2004. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/snod/ABSalClimax-WT.html.