Victorian Lit Globalization

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course on British literature of the Victorian period (1837-1901) examines how works of culture confronted what was arguably the fundamental social fact of the nineteenth century: the empire. Focus varies from term to term, but each section will highlight one or several of the major media forms of Victorian modernity, including novels, drama, poetry, print journalism, visual art, and early photography, paying special attention to how those forms began to imagine “the globe” as a knowable entity. How did categories of gender, sexuality, race, and even personhood change in this new framework? How were the conventions of Victorian literature affected by the fact of imperial domination? And was the practice of imperialism itself shaped by the works that described, and sometimes critiqued, it? How did the Victorians imagine their era of globalization? How do we imagine ours? Please see section description for details about this term's offering.