The Victorian Period

3 units

This course begins with two classic mid-century novels-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens-once celebrated as intimate portrayals of a first person narrator meant to be representative of a new national type: the post-Romantic English subject rewarded by hard work and delayed gratification. We'll explore why some critics in the late 20th century began to emphasize how these once paradigmatic English stories were in fact fictions of empire, complicated portraits of an era when Englishness was inevitably defined by events and experiences that were geographically and culturally estranged from the British Isles. The remainder of the course will focus on authors of the late 19th century grappling with imperialism, colonization, globalization and the transformative technologies that gave birth to our modern world. Satisfies the Nineteenth Century requirement.