ENGL 834 - Victorian Fiction,1851-1867

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

The years from the Great Exhibition (1851) to the Second Reform Bill (1867) were a period of enormous vitality in the English novel. The explosion of serial publication and circulating libraries; the rise of consumer capitalism at home and imperial dominance abroad; and the variety of worship and readership resulted in the production of novels with narrative power and cultural authority. Within this period, we will survey many of the major authors of Victorian fiction while attending closely to a specific set of historical developments, class relations, and gender issues. We will read eight representative works of fiction: Dickens's Bleak House (1852-53); Thackeray's Henry Esmond (1852); Charlotte Bronte's Villette (1853); Gaskell's North and South (1854-55); Collins's The Moonstone(1860); Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret (1862); George Eliot's Felix Holt, The Radical (1866); and Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset (1866-67). These texts include industrial novels, sensation fiction, multiplot novels, fictional autobiographies, historical fiction, and mysteries, demonstrating the enormous formal variety hidden under the deceptive phrase "nineteenth-century realism." In addition, students will present two oral reports, one on a major critical book treating the fiction of this period, another on an important intellectual document. This course is only open to seniors and graduate students. 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

The Course Profile information is provided and updated by third parties including the respective institutions. While the institutions are able to update their information at any time, the information is not independently validated, and no party associated with this website can accept responsibility for its accuracy.