Steger, Sara
MWF 10:20 AM
Park Hall 259
"Never since the beginning of Time was there, that we hear or read of, so intensely self-conscious a Society. Our whole relations to the Universe and to our fellow-man have become an Inquiry, a Doubt." ~ Thomas Carlisle from "Characteristics"
The tumultuous years of Victoria's reign in England are hard to pin down with one word, so here are two: expansion and self-scrutiny. The empire expanded, women's roles expanded, technological innovations and industrialization expanded, and so did class divides. All of this change ushered in doubt and introspection, which authors explored in the literature of the period. Thus in this course, we will be exploring the ways that Victorian writers expressed their shifting and often-contradictory ideas about British identity. We will read poetry, essays, and fiction from a variety of voices, including the Brontes, Oscar Wilde, Mary Seacole, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Michael Field, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Major assignments will include a class presentation, two 1200-1500-word essays, and a final project (creative or analytical).