ENG.3048 Studies in British Prose: Victorian Values
This course is organized around the study of British prose from the Victorian period. The first half of the term will be devoted to the genre of nonfiction prose known as "cultural criticism"-writings on matters related to the constitution and temperament of a particular culture-by some of the period's foremost public intellectuals. In addition to evaluating the arguments of various eminent Victorians on the subject of the intellectual, moral, political, and aesthetic state of nineteenth-century British society, we will also attend closely to their distinctive rhetorical styles and the various techniques they employ to persuasively engage with their audiences. The second half of the term will expand our focus to include prose fiction, and we will read two famous works of Victorian fantasy-Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-in conjunction with short prose pieces that will allow us to situate those fictional works within wider social debates regarding issues of gender and sexuality, industrialization and urbanization, and the challenges posed to conventional frameworks for understanding the world by burgeoning disciplines such as sociology and psychology. Throughout this writing-intensive course, our investigations of Victorian prose forms will provide myriad opportunities to practice key skills for literary analysis and criticism.
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