The
Politics of the Victorian Novel
Course
Description:
This class introduces students to Nineteenth-Century
literature and culture by focusing simultaneously on the shifting form of the
novel and the political and social change of the Victorian period. From voting reform, labor unions, and
women’s rights, to wavering support for British imperialism, Victorians
witnessed, criticized, and participated in a push for more radical politics and
wider representation. At the same time, novelists of the period were
experimenting with how best to represent the shifting political sphere and use
their art form as a way to encourage both conservative and radical change. This
class will thus read novels by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, George
Eliot, George Gissing, Richard Marsh, and Oliver Schreiner, and other primary
sources (including non-fiction essays and poetry) by writers such as Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, Friedrich Engels, John Stuart Mill, Rudyard Kipling, and
Sarah Grand to examine how the Victorian novel functioned as a political
entity.
Requirements:
5 Close Readings: 25%
(5% each)
Midterm Paper: 25%
Final Paper: 30%
Discussion Questions and Participation: 10%
Reading Quizzes: 10%
Required
Texts:
Charles Dickens, Oliver
Twist
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary
Barton
George Eliot, Felix
Holt, the Radical
Oliver Schreiner, The
Story of an African Farm
George Gissing, The
Odd Women
Richard Marsh, The
Beetle