91Ö±²¥

This module in Victorian literature will introduce you to several canonical Victorian writers, as well to outsider perspectives on the Victorian period. Looking at writers including George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thomas Hardy, James Watkins, and Chartist poets, the module interrogates how these writers approach questions of labour and workers’ rights, gender and sexuality, race and empire, and industry and nature. We will think too about the rich variety of genres, forms and styles across these texts. A group project assessment invites you to consider how the ideas, moments and movements important to Victorian writers are relevant today, and how they are presented in 91Ö±²¥â€™s cultural institutions. Each longer literary work will be taught over two weeks, allowing you the time to read and delve deep into each text, drawing out the complexities and political engagements of Victorian writers. We will analyse the ways in which Victorian society diagnosed its own shortcomings and imagined solutions to those problems. 

To provide students with a nuanced and critical understanding of the Victorian period as an era which saw both advances and reverses in the general area of rights.

To create a critical understanding of the work of a selection of poets, novelists, and prose-writers of the period and to explore Victorian literature within its historical, aesthetic and intellectual context.

To prepare students for the advanced study of Victorian literature at level 3.

To enable students to develop their close reading skills by attending to the nuances of literary and historical texts.

To explore the development of different genres within the Victorian period, including prose, fiction and poetry.

To expose students to the critical and theoretical debates within the field of Victorian studies.

To create a critical understanding of the way that Victorian history is presented by cultural institutions. 

Please note this is an indicative reading list (but each text contributes to the debate on rights in at least two areas): 

• Elizabeth Gaskell, North & South  

• Selection of Chartist poetry  

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh  

• Charles Dickens, Great Expectations  

• Olive Schreiner, The Story of An African Farm  

This course will be taught by a weekly 2 hour lecture and a weekly 1 hour seminar. Materials including; llecture slides, bibliographies, exercises, handouts, will be posted on Blackboard each week. 

By the end of the course students should be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of Victorian debates concerning rights in the areas of  labour, gender and race;

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role played by Victorian literature in the debates over rights;

Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships (both complementary and conflictual) between different rights;

Demonstrate a nuanced and critical understanding of the progress and regress of specific rights across the Victorian period.

Articulate a position about the development of Victorian literature in relation to economic and industrial history, gender and sexuality, race and empire

Analyse the formal developments with the fiction, biography and poetry of the Victorian period

Navigate key critical arguments about the Victorian period 

Critically evaluate competing claims regarding personal, social, political and economic rights.

develop their independent thought and judgment, and be able to assess the critical ideas of others

assess critical arguments, evaluate the utility of theoretical concepts, and read closely works of literature, in order to formulate persuasive critical claims in assessed work  

offer a cogent understanding of the relationship between literature and economic and industrial history

be able to use critical vocabulary appropriate for analysing literary texts. 

• Make good use of library, electronic, and online resources pertaining to the course; 

• Plan and execute independent research on the social role of literature in the Victorian period;  

• Speak and write clearly on the topic of rights in the Victorian period. 

• Retrieve, sift, organise, synthesise and critically evaluate material from a range of different sources, including library, electronic, and online resources; 

• Demonstrate good teamworking skills by working with other students to develop and deliver a group project; 

• Manage time effectively by scheduling tasks in order of importance; 

• Develop a critically, reflective yet sensitive attitude to the complex debates surrounding rights. 

Please note this is an indicative reading list (but each text contributes to the debate on rights in at least two areas):

Elizabeth Gaskell, North & South  

Selection of Chartist poetry  

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh  

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations  

Olive Schreiner, The Story of An African Farm  

Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge

James Watkins, Narrative of the Life of James Watkins