ENGL 40332 - Reforming Victorian Literature

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

The Victorian critic and poet Matthew Arnold complained about one of his own poems that it depicted a situation in which "suffering finds no vent in action." This complaint expressed a characteristic Victorian belief that literature should imagine possibilities for action-for social change, transformation, or reform. In this course, we will explore how Victorian authors sought to create literary works that would reform the members of their audience and, in turn, the society in which they lived. In addition, we will examine the various ways in which Victorian writers sought to re-form literature, creating new literary forms and forming old ones anew, in order to achieve this aim. We will study works by Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, John Henry Newman, Christina Rossetti, John Ruskin, Alfred Tennyson, and others. Prior to the start of the semester, an online syllabus will be posted at www.nd.edu/~cvandenb.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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