Syllabus: British Literature and Culture, 1830-1920, Fall 2017
Tuesday 22 August Introduction to course; Britain 1830-1920
Thursday 24 August Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, introduction and text
Tuesday 29 August Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” [handout]
Thursday 31 August Ellen Johnston, Autobiography of “The Factory Girl” [will post]; Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England, chapter 3, “Working Life” [will post]
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Tuesday 5 September Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Cry of the Children” [handout]
Thursday 7 September Mitchell, chapter 2, “Class, Tradition and Money,” [will post], Elizabeth Gaskell, biography, Gaskell, Mary Barton first volume
First posting due, on Prince, Johnston, Barrett Browning, or Gaskell
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Tuesday 12 September Mitchell, chapter 6, “Home, Food, and Clothes,” [will post], Mary Barton, second volume
Thursday 14 September Mary Barton, third volume
Tuesday 19 September test on Prince, Johnston, Gaskell, Barrett Browning, and Mitchell, chapters 2, 3 and 6
Thursday 21 September ---------, Charles Dickens, biography, Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 1-10
Second posting due: any topic thus far
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Tuesday 26 September Mitchell, chapter 7, “Family and Social Rituals,” Bleak House, chapters 11-40
Thursday 28 September Bleak House, chapters 46-65
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday 3 October Victorian art slides, Alfred Tennyson, biography
Thursday 5 October Tennyson, “The Lady of Shallot”
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Tuesday 10 October Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” first half
Thursday 12 October Mitchell, chapter 4, “Science and Technology,” Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” second half
Third posting due: any topic thus far
Tuesday 17 October Joan Perkin, Victorian Women, chapter 12, “A Separate Sphere,” [handout], Augusta Webster, biography, Webster, “The Castaway,” first half
Thursday 19 October “The Castaway,” second half
Tuesday 24 October test, Dickens, Tennyson, Webster, Mitchell, chapters 4 and 7, Perkin
Thursday 26 October student projects, William Morris biography
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31 October -------, slides of Morris and Co. art
2 November Morris, News from Nowhere, chapters 1-16
Fourth posting due: any topic thus far
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7 November News from Nowhere, chapters 17-32
9 November H. G. Wells, biography, Wells, The Time Machine, chapters 1-6
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14 November The Time Machine, chapters 7-12
16 November student projects
Fifth posting due: any topic thus far
Thanksgiving break
28 November research essay due; WWI poetry, Owen [handout]
30 November WWI poetry, Sassoon, Rosenberg [handout]
Sixth posting due: any topic thus far
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5 December student projects
7 December test on Morris, Wells, and WWI poetry
12 December final class meeting and presentations of take-home exam/essay drafts
15 December final take-home exam comparative essay and 6 postings due 5 p. m.