ENGL 356 Outline

THE KING'S UNIVERSITY

COURSE NUMBER:

ENGL 356

COURSE TITLE:

Victorian Worlds: An Introduction to 19th -Century Literature

NAME OF INSTRUCTOR:

Elizabeth Willson Gordon

CREDIT WEIGHT AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION:

credits 3 (hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

From tea parties to coal mines, this course explores a range of literature and its social contexts across the 19th century. Visit the country estates of the regency period of Jane Austen and the mid-century Victorian London of Charles Dickens. This course includes a variety of the era's prose--both fiction and non-fiction--as well as poetry, sampling many major authors and genres of the period. Explore the Victorian concept of "progress" during a time of scientific advancement, industrialism, colonialism and debates about gender, aesthetics, morality and faith.

Prerequisites: ENGL 215

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Ed. Claudia Johnson. New York: Norton, 2002.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Kate Flint. London: Penguin, 2003.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South. Ed. Alan Shelston. New York: Norton, 2005.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven. http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/poe/raven.html
Robinson, Catherine and Carol Christ eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age. Volume E. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2012.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Norman Page. Toronto: Broadview P, 2000.

MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT:


Presentation	10%
Review Paper (3-4 pages)	15%
Research Paper (8-10 pages)	30%
Course Professionalism and Participation	10%
Quizzes	5%
Final Exam	30%

	100%

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

In this course we will explore the Victorian Age through its literature and cultural contexts. We will read a variety of the era’s prose and poetry, sampling many major authors of the Victorian period. We will explore the Victorian concept of “progress” during a time of great social and cultural upheaval. Through a roughly chronological study of the literature, we will look at the ways writing during this era is shaped by four main themes: the changing view of love, duty, and the female gender; advances in science and challenges to faith; the promise and problems of industrialism; the moral debates and new aesthetic philosophy. Alongside a few American authors of the same era, we will explore the ways in which the various literary forms reflect in their stylistics the philosophical and theological concerns of 19th-Century British life.

Our study of Victorian literature and culture will include an element of lecture but is largely participatory. Students should expect to engage with the material in a range of ways: reading aloud, presenting contextual material, designing discussion questions, discussing impressions of the texts, writing about the texts in various formats, responding to peers’ work, etc.

COURSE OUTLINE:

January 5 Introduction, The Victorian era: key terms and concepts
January 8 The “Woman Question”: The Victorian Debate about Gender (Norton p.1607-10), also Stickney Ellis, Patmore, Ruskin, Anonymous “The Great Social Evil, Mulock, Caird and Besant (found between pages 1610 and 1636)
January 10 John Stuart Mill from The Subjection of Women (Norton p.1105-1115)
January 12 Quiz 1; Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility
January 15 Sense and Sensibility continued
January 17 Sense and Sensibility continued
January 19 Sense and Sensibility continued
January 22 Quiz 2; Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s excerpts from Aurora Leigh (Norton p.1138-52)
January 24 IS Conference –No Class
January 26 Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets 21, 22, 32, 43
January 29 Robert Browning’s “Love Among the Ruins” and “The Lost Leader”
January 31 Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Mariana” and “The Lady of Shalott”
February 2 Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” continued
February 5 Tennyson’s In Memoriam Reading
February 7 In Memoriam continued
February 9 In Memoriam continued
February 12 Quiz 3; Charles Dickens’s Hard Times
February 14 Hard Times continued
February 16 Hard Times continued
February 19 Reading Week
February 21 Reading Week
February 23 Reading Week
February 26 Quiz 4; Industrialism: Progress or Decline? (Norton p.1580-81), also The Children’s Employment Commission, Kinsley, Mayhew, and Besant (found between pages1587 and 1605)
February 28 Review Paper Due; Charles Darwin excerpts from The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (p.1560-73); Review presentations
March 2 Review presentations and discussion
March 5 Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven (online)
March 7 Arnold’s excerpts from Culture and Anarchy (p.1418-1425) and “Dover Beach”
March 9 Thomas Carlyle’s excerpts from Past and Present (p.1067-1076)
March 12 Quiz 5; Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South
March 14 North and South continued
March 16 North and South continued
March 19 North and South continued
March 21 Paper Abstracts Due on Moodle; North and South continued
March 23 John Ruskin excerpts from Modern Painters (p.1338-42), [The Awakening Conscience] and Pre-Raphaelitism (p.1466-1470)
March 26 William Michael Rossetti [The Pre-Raphaelite Manifesto] (p.1470-71) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Jenny”(p.1478-87)
March 28 Research Paper Due; Gerard Manley Hopkins “God’s Grandeur,” ”The Windhover” and “Spring”
March 30 Good Friday – No Class
April 2 Easter Monday – No Class
April 4 Quiz 6; Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
April 6 The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
April 9 The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
April 11 The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
April 13 Salon (informal presentation of research material and review)