Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Study of literature and culture during the long nineteenth century (c. 1780 – 1920). Selected content may include a variety of forms and genres and may consider different cultural and geographical contexts within local, national, colonial, imperial, global, transnational, and /or planetary frameworks. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught.

COURSE DETAILS:

 
WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
The One and the Many in the Victorian Novel

Why do so many Victorian novels have individual names as their titles?  What were Victorian novelists trying to capture in these stories focussed on individuals?  And how do these individual characters relate to the larger social worlds of which they are a part?  In this course, we'll look at 4 novels from key moments in the nineteenth century in order to trace the development of Victorian theories of identity. We'll pay particular attention to how these novels draw on new models of psychology and offer new ways of thinking about a rapidly industrialising world and the changes that come in its wake.  We'll also consider our own continuing fascination with these novels and their numerous film and musical adaptations.

Topics will include:

• the role of Doppelgängers, detectives and multiple narratives in the construction of Victorian identity
• Victorian discourses of psychology, including physiognomy, phrenology, associationism and mesmerism
• the relationship of outer physical signs to inner mental states and processes
• the literature of "sensation"
• empire and identity
• notions of normality, pathology, insanity, will, self-control, addiction, heredity and degeneration in relation to issues of gender, class and race

 

 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Our course learning goals:

• develop an understanding of a range of nineteenth-century authors and genres
• develop an understanding of the relationship between Victorian literature and the period’s historical and social contexts
• learn to engage with Victorianist criticism and interdisciplinary ways of reading fiction to develop arguments in conversation with scholars
• develop communication and analytical skills through responding to the course readings in writing
• hone the ability to write cogent, persuasive essays

 

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

You will need to order all 4 novels for the course on your own. They have not been ordered from the SFU bookstore. Please order the editions I have listed here:

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre  (Oxford World Classics, ISBN: 978-0198804970)
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0141439747)
M.E. Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (Oxford World Classics, ISBN: 978-0199577033)
Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Norton Critical Editions, ISBN: 978-0393679212)

These books can be orderd through a local bookstore (Pulp Fiction, Massy Books, Iron Dog Books) as well as the usual large chains (Amazon, Indigo). If possible, go local!

All other supplementary materials will be available on our Canvas website.

REQUIRED READING NOTES: