CLASS MEETINGS Spring 2012
Week 1
Tues. JAN. 17
Introduction to the Course and Requirements
View Simon Schama’s History of Britain: Victoria and Her Sisters
Read: Jane Eyre Chapters 1-4
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. 19 Last Day to Add/Drop
Jane Eyre Chapters 1-4
NOTE: Advise me today if you will have a conflict with potential presentation assignment dates.
Week 2
Assignment of Presentation Topics and Schedule
Tues. JAN. 24
Jane Eyre Chapter 5-15
1 Seminar: Victorian Domestic Ideology: Women’s Roles and Cultural expectations; Brief Survey of Domestic Manuals (Broadview Appendix D)
Thurs. JAN. 26
Jane Eyre Chapter 16-26
2 Seminar: The Governess Question (See Broadview Appendix C)
3 Seminar: Phrenology and Victorian Racial
Week 3
Tues. JAN. 31
Jane Eyre Chapters 27-33
4 Seminar: Victorian Slave Uprisings in the colonies and the Governor Eyre Controversy (Broadview Appendices E and F)
5 Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Madness and Insanity
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Frances Power Cobbe "What Shall We Do with Our Old Maids" and "Celibacy vs. Marriage" and "Wife Torture in England"
Thurs. FEB. 2
Jane Eyre Chapters 34-38
6 Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Suttee and Suicide (See Victorian Web)
Week 4
Tues. FEB. 7
Great Expectations Vol. 1 Chapters 1-9
7 Seminar: Transportation of Convicts, Accounts and Emigration (Broadview Appendix D)
Thurs. FEB. 9 Great Expectations Vol. 1 Chapters 10-20
8 Seminar: Case of George Barnwell, Model Prisons, Dickens's Writing on Prisons (Broadview Appendix and web)
Week 5 FIRST ESSAY DUE
Tues. FEB. 14
Great Expectations Vol. 2 Chapters 1-15
9 Seminar: Extracts on Class and Language and the Education of a Gentleman, Ideology of Self-Help (Broadview Appendix C)
Thurs. FEB. 16
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"
Week 6
Tues. FEB. 21
Great Expectations Volume 3 Chapters 8-20 and Appendix A: Original Ending
Thurs. FEB. 23 MID-TERM EXAM
Week 7
Tues. FEB. 28
The Moonstone Prologue and First Period up to end of Chapter 11
10 Seminar: The Indian Mutiny and contemporary responses to it including Charles Dickens's response
Thurs. MARCH 1 The Moonstone Completion of First Period
11 Seminar: Constance Kent Roadhouse Murder Case of 1860 (Broadview Appendix B)
Week 8
Tues. MARCH 6
The Moonstone Second Period: First and Second Narratives (Miss Clack and Matthew Bruff)
12 Seminar: Exeter Hall and the Philanthropic movements of the mid-Victorian period
Thurs. MARCH 8
The Moonstone Third Narrative (Franklin Blake)
13 Seminar: The Major Murry/Northumberland Street Case of 1861 (Broadview Appendix C)
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Margaret Oliphant "The Grievances of Women" and Helen Taylor "Women and Criticism"
Week 9
Tues. MARCH 13 Class cancelled (Dickens conference) Makeup class on Friday April 20 in Protestant Cemetery
Thurs. MARCH 15
The Moonstone Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Narratives and Epilogue
14 Seminar: Collins's views on British Imperialism in "A Sermon for Sepoys" (Broadview Appendix D)
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Margaret Oliphant "The Grievances of Women" and Helen Taylor "Women and Criticism"
Week 10 MARCH BREAK 19-23
Week 11
Tues. MARCH 27
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
15 Seminar: London in the 1880's (Broadview Appendix I)
Background reading: Selection from Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors Eliza Lynn Linton "The Girl of the Period,"The Modern Revolt"
The Wild Women: as Politicians," The Wild Women: as Social Insurgents"
Thurs. MARCH 29
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
16 Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Psychology -- The Science of Split Personalities (Broadview Appendix K)
Week 12
Tues. APRIL 3
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
17 Seminar: Ideas of Degeneration and Crime, Darwin
18 Seminar: Jack the Ripper Case (Broadview Appendix H and Appendix J)
Thurs. APRIL 5
Arthur Morrison A Child of the Jago
19 Seminar: East End Slums in the 1890's
Week 13
Tues. APRIL 10
Arthur Morrison A Child of the Jago
Thurs. APRIL 12
Arthur Morrison A Child of the Jago
Week 14
Tues. APRIL 17
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 1-4
20 Seminar: Aestheticism and Decadence Movements in Art and Literature
Thurs. APRIL 19
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 5-10
Friday APRIL 20 (Makeup Day for March 13th) MEET at Protestant Cemetery (Piramide)
The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 11-15
21 Seminar: Victorian Attitudes to Homosexuality (Appendix F): Codes and Covers in a Homophobic age: Pater, Huysman and Wildean Languor (Broadview Appendices D, E, G).
Week 15 SECOND PAPER DUE
Tues. APRIL 24
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"
22 Seminar: Wilde's Conviction for Homosexuality and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Thurs. APRIL 26
Summing up