Week 1
Tues. Jan. 21 Introduction to the Course and Requirements
View Simon Schama’s History of Britain: Victoria and Her Sisters
Please view this episode if you miss the first class -- ON RESERVE in LIBRARY
Read: Jane Eyre Chapters 1-4 for Thursday
Optional background reading for essays, from Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors (ON RESERVE in LIBRARY) Anna Brownwell Jameson's "The Milliners" and Margaret Oliphant's "The Condition of Women"; view of the governess in Harriet Martineau's "Female Industry"
Thurs. Jan. 23 Last Day to Add/Drop
Jane Eyre Chapters 1-4
Seminar: Domestic Ideology
Week 2
Assignment of Presentation Topics and Schedule (to be determined based on enrollment after Add/Drop)
Tues. Jan. 28
Jane Eyre Chapter 5-15
Thurs. Jan. 30
Jane Eyre Chapter 16-26
Seminar: Phrenology and Victorian Racial/Cultural Theory Week 3
Tues. Feb. 4
Jane Eyre Chapters 27-38
Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Suttee and Suicide (See Victorian Web)
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Frances Power Cobbe "What Shall We Do with Our Old Maids" and " vs. Marriage" and "Wife Torture in England"
Thurs. Feb. 6. Peer-review sources for First Essay due to me (send via email)
Great Expectations Vol. 1 Chapters 1-9
Week 4
Tues. Feb. 11
Great Expectations Vol. 1 Chapters 10-20
Seminar: Victorian Transportation of Convicts to Australia and the Case of George Barnwell
Thurs. Feb. 13 FIRST ESSAY DUE
Great Expectations Vol. 2 Chapters 1-15
Seminar: Darwin's ideas of evolution and Samuel Smiles's philosophy of Self-Help: Can a gentleman be made?
Week 5
Tues. Feb. 18
Great Expectations Vol. 2 Chapters 16-20; Vol. 3 Chapters 1-7
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Frances Power Cobbe's essay "Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors"
Thurs. Feb. 20
Great Expectations Volume 3 Chapters 8-20 and Appendix A: Original Ending
Week 6
Tues. Feb. 25
MID-TERM EXAM
Thurs. Feb. 27
Wilkie Collins The Moonstone Prologue and First Period
Seminar: Constance Kent Roadhouse Murder Case of 1860 (Broadview Appendix B)
Week 7
Tues. March 5
The Moonstone First Period (cont.)
Seminar: The Major Murry/Northumberland Street Case of 1861 (Broadview Appendix C)
Thur. March 7
The Moonstone Second Period: First and Second Narratives (Miss Clack and Matthew Bruff)
Seminar: Exeter Hall and the Philanthropic Movements of the mid-Victorian period
Week 8 MARCH BREAK March 9-13
Week 9
Tues. March 17
The Moonstone Third Narrative (Franklin Blake)
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Margaret Oliphant "The Grievances of Women" and Helen Taylor "Women and Criticism"
Thurs. March 19
The Moonstone Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Narratives and Epilogue and "A Sermon for Sepoys" (Appendix D)
Week 10
Thurs. March 24
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Psychology -- The Science of Split Personalities (Broadview Appendix K)
Tues. March 26
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Seminar: Ideas of Degeneration and Crime and the Jack the Ripper Case
Week 11
Tues. March 31
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Thurs. April 2
Arthur Morrison Child of the Jago Chapters 1-12
Seminar: What does Africa have to do with London? Construction of the poor as foreign others.
Week 12
Tues. April 7
Arthur Morrison Child of the Jago Chapters 13-25
Seminar: London's East End Slums in the 1890's compared to London of the 1880s.
Thurs. April 9
Arthur Morrison Child of the Jago Chapters 26-end
Due Today: Please send me an email with your Works Cited page in MLA format with a list of references you will be consulting for your final research paper. Remember to title your attachment with your last name.
Week 13
Tues. April 14
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 1-4
Seminar: The Decadence Movement
Thurs. April 16
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 5-10
Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Homosexuality (Appendix F), including codes and covers in a homophobic age: Pater, Huysman and Wildean Languor (See Broadview Appendices D, E, G for codes).
Week 14
Tues. April 21 SECOND ESSAY DUE
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 11-15
(See selections from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors, including Eliza Lynn Linton "The Girl of the Period," "The Modern Revolt," "The Wild Women: as Politicians," The Wild Women: as Social Insurgents")
Seminar: The New Woman: How to smoke and ride a bicycle
Thurs. April 23
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 16-20
Background Reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Mona Caird "Marriage," "A Defence of the So-called Wild Woman" Millicent Garret Fawcett "The Emancipation of Women"
Week 15
Tues. April 28
Dorian Gray and After
Seminar: Wilde's trial, conviction, and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"
Thurs. April 30
Review and Summing Up
Meet at the Protestant Cemetery for field trip