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Prof. Florence S. Boos - 8:224 - Spring 2002
After some consideration of the social landscape of the 1830s and 40s, we will read and discuss a wide range of texts from early Victorian Britain--chiefly art criticism and social commentary, poetry and autobiographies, essays and fiction--and examine linguistic and psychological aspects of the poetry and autobiographies, social implications of the essays and art criticism, and aesthetic principles reflected in the fiction. We will also consider some of the ways in which region, class, gender and intended audience influenced these texts, and seek common motifs and modes of organization which may have crossed generic or class boundaries. The works to be read and discussed will include:
Art: John Ruskin, selections from The Seven Lamps of Architecture and Modern Painters; slides of Pre-Raphaelite art
Poetry: selections from the Broadview Anthology of Poetry and Poetic Theory, edited by Thomas Collins and Vivienne Rundle: Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, Dante Rossetti, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Augusta Webster, Matthew Arnold, Algernon Swinburne, Gerard Manley Hopkins; handouts from working-class poets, including Janet Hamilton and Samuel Laycock
Autobiographies: Ellen Johnston's Autobiography; The History of Mary Prince
Signs of the Times: Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy; J. S. Mill, On Liberty; Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Fiction: Charlotte Bronte, Villette; George Eliot, Felix Holt
I will ask students to post internet responses to the readings, and write two or three shorter papers or one long (25 page) critical essay.
Books at IMU:
Thomas Collins and Vivienne Rundle, eds. Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory
William Buckler, ed. Victorian Prose
Charlotte Bronte, Villette
George Eliot, Felix Holt
Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, ed. Moira Ferguson
Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean
Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill, The Negro Question
Handouts: selections from John Ruskin’s Modern Painters, autobiographies by Ellen Johnston and Elizabeth Campbell, poems by Edwin Waugh and Janet Hamilton.
Assignments: You are asked to submit three examples of written work. 1. a journal of reading responses in the form of web discussion--please post one page each week, for a total of 14 mini-essays. These may be informal, and should consist of your thoughts on one or more of our readings. Several of them should also respond (politely) to ideas of your fellow students, or give an overview of your ideas on topics of the course thus far. 2. two 8 + page essays (or one 16+ page essay), developing your view on a literary topic of the period in the context of available criticism and historical sources. If you choose to write two papers, the first paper will be due directly before spring break, and the second at the beginning of May. You should give me a title, abstract and short bibliography for the first paper by March 1st, and for the second, by April 15th.
If you wish to give me a draft for comments, please do so by the preceding class period; or in the case of the longer essay, the preceding week.
Syllabus:
January 23 W introduction
Art, Poetics, Pre-Raphaelitism
for next time, read Tennyson, “The Kracken,” “Hesperides,” “The Lady of Shalott,” “The Palace of Art,” “Lotus Eaters,” “Ulysses,” “Morte d’ Arthur,” “Break, Break, Break”; W. J. Fox, essay on Tennyson’s poetry.
background reading: R. Martin, C. Ricks, J. Buckley, L. Hughes, H. Tucker
January 29 M discussion of Tennyson
January 31 W Pre-Raphaelite slides
February 4 M Tennyson, “In Memoriam”
February 6 W Tennyson, Arthurian poems
February 11 M Ruskin, selections from Modern Painters
February 13 W Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic”
February 18 M Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” “In an Artist’s Studio”
February 20 W Dante G. Rossetti, “The Blessed Damozel,” “The Portrait,” “The Woodspurge,” sonnets on paintings
February 25 M Robert Browning, “Fra Lippo Lippi”
February 27 W library resources with Kathy Magarell
Victorians Abroad: Race and Empire
March 4 M Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince
March 6 W Special Collections with David Schoonover
March 11 M Carlyle and Mill, The Negro Question
March 13 W Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” “A Curse for a Nation”
spring break
The Victorians and Other Cultures: Europe
March 25 M Charlotte Bronte, Villette
March 27 W Villette
April 1 M Villette
April 3 W Villette
April 8 M D. G. Rossetti, “The House of Life”
April 10 W Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Mother and Son,” Robert Browning, “Pompilia”
April 15 M “Pompilia” Class and Gender
April 17 W William Morris, “The Defence of Guenevere” and other poems from The Defence
April 22 M George Eliot, Felix Holt
April 24 W Felix Holt
April 29 Arnold, Culture and Anarchy
May 1 Marx and Engels, selections
May 6 Felix Holt May 8 working-class poets; Waugh and Hamilton; working-class memoirs, Johnston and Campbell
final meeting during exam week; final paper due.