Objectives

In this class you will learn about the Victorian period in England, a period that lasted from 1837 to 1901 and that confronted human beings with many of the same issues of race, gender, and class that continue to face us today. In particular, we will be examining the shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, the questions raised by an increasingly materialistic and scientific community, the issues raised by the fact that the British Empire covered the globe, and the problems raised by the fact that both women and members of the working classes demanded equal rights and opportunities.

Texts:

The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Victorian Age (Longman),

Dickens, Hard Times (Penguin),

Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Penguin)

WEEK I

June 27 Introduction to course

June 28 “The Victorian Age” (VA—1032-1056); Elizabeth Gaskell, “Our Society at Cranford,” (VA—1452-1466)

June 29 George Eliot, “Brother Jacob” (VA—1521-1552)

June 30 Thomas Hardy, “The Withered Arm” (VA—1477-1494)

WEEK II

July 4 Wuthering Heights

July 5 Wuthering Heights

July 6 “Industrialism” (VA—1093--1106);

Paper #1 due

July 7 “Industrialism” (VA—1106-1119, 1082-1093)

WEEK III

July 11 Midterm

July 12 “Science” (VA—1282-1325)

July 13 “Science” (VA—1326-1345)

July 14 Tennyson, “Locksley Hall,” (VA--1204-1209) and “Crossing the Bar” (VA—1281); Arnold, “Dover Beach” (VA—1634) and “Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse” (VA—1638-1642)

WEEK IV

July 18 Swinburne, “Hymn to Proserpine” (VA—1752-1755), Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur” (VA—1778) and “The Windhover” (VA—1780)

July 19 “Empire” (VA—1813-1853);

Paper #2 due

July 20 Tennyson, “Ulysses” (VA—1198-99), Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (VA—1362-1366) and Andrea Del Sarto (VA-1378-1383)

July 21 Victorian Women’s Poetry Web site (http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/blind/birds.html): "Welcome to Egypt," "The Sphinx, Sphinx-Money," "The Beautiful Beeshareen Boy," "A Fantasy," "The Colossi of the Plain"

WEEK V

July 25 “Reform and Women’s Issues” (VA—1600-1630)

Paper #3 due

July 26 Florence Nightingale, “Cassandra” (VA—1583-1599)

July 27 John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” (VA—1120-1131) and “The Subjection of Women” (VA—1132-1141)

July 28 “The Fin de Siècle”: Oscar Wilde (VA—1854-1872, 1922- 1935)

WEEK VI

August 1 Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” (VA—1882-1921)

August 2 “The Fin de Siècle” (VA—1936-1988)

August 3 Wrap Up

August 4 Final

Requirements

You are expected to attend class regularly (missing more than two days without some reasonable explanation is likely to hurt you), to read and contemplate the assigned texts, and to respond to these texts in a timely fashion. (For each assignment, you will receive a paper copy that spells out the requirements, and you can also access the individual assignments on WebCT.)

You will also be expected to adhere to the requirements spelled out in the Georgia Tech Honor Code. (For a full version of the code, please check http://www.gatech.edu/honor/honorcode.html). If you have any questions about what is or is not permitted in this class, please ask me.

Grades

Midterm (essay and short-answer) (25%)

Final (cumulative, essay and short-answer) (30%)

Paper #1 (Eliot, Hardy, Gaskell, or Bronte country) (15%)

Paper #2 (Museum of the History of Science (15%)

Paper #3 (Pitt Rivers Museum or Ashmolean Museum) (15%)