English 4640 Victorian Literature & Culture
Course Description
This is a drive-by and fast-forward course hurtling you through the "the Victorian Age,"
the intellectual and social climate of England during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) following
what we have come to know as the Romantic Period. More specifically, the course sets itself the task of
addressing some of the issues that define Victorian culture, the period in British history that witnessed
the massive expansion of European influence, but particularly that of the British Empire, throughout the world
(usually under the banner of "progress" and "civilization"). Here are some of the issues the course seeks to investigate:
- the Victorian understanding of culture, gender, and class
- the position of women and the other
- the role of science and technology throughout the 19th-century
- the notion of empire and the impulse toward colonization
- the emerging media ecology
- literature as a form of commodity production.
David Damrosch, et. al., The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Third or Fourth edition, vol. 2B - The Victorian Age