Instr:                Sukanya Banerjee
Office:              CRT 497,     229-5454
e-mail:              banerjee@uwm.edu
Office hours:    by appointment.

Course Information:                      TR     3:30-4:45    CRT 124

Course Description

Through a study of representative novels of the Victorian period, this course will examine the ways in which notions of “Englishness” were constructed  in nineteenth century England. What did it mean to be “English,” and to what extent was this identity undercut or reinforced by changing class, gender, and racial relations in  Victorian England? How did England’s role in the global imperial context help shape a “national culture”?  Some of the key themes we will emphasize include a consideration of Victorian notions of space, subjectivity, the importance of “work,” and education.
 

Novels will include Charlotte Bronte’s Villette, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton, Wilkie Collins’ Moonstone, George Eliot’s Felix Holt, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We will supplement our study of the novels by reading prose pieces by Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin,  T.B. Macaulay, and John Stuart Mill.

Secondary readings will be included in a course packet.