At Home with the Victorians

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Everyone has a sense of home, and, to the British in the Victorian period, home developed into an obsession that continues today. This course looks at the everyday spaces inhabited by the Victorians in London and the surrounding provinces. ‘Home' to the Victorians came in many guises, both temporal and permanent, domestic and institutional, charitable and municipal, and the experience within varied significantly between the classes. Students will explore life behind closed doors using a range of primary sources alongside secondary reading. In taking this course, students will gain a nuanced understanding of domestic and institutional life through the spectrum of home and engage with the broader social, political, and economic developments in Victorian society.