In Excess: Rossetti, Hopkins, Wilde

This seminar will be a focused close reading of three late Victorian writers whose works might be described as radically excessive insofar as they transgress and push beyond the limits of social, ethical, aesthetic, sexual, and political conventions. What does it mean to describe a text as excessive, and how can excess be considered as a constitutive part of its form? We will concentrate on poetry, plays, and theoretical texts, putting our authors into conversation with contemporary thinkers of excess. Enrollment limited to 20.