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Victorian Literature and the Transformation of the World in the Nineteenth Century

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Course title: Victorian Literature and the Transformation of the World in the Nineteenth Century
Instructor: Professor Tatjana Jukić
ECTS credits: 6
Language: English
Semester: 4 or 6

Enrollment requirements: Introduction to the Study of English Literature 1 and 2

Course description: Taking Jürgen Osterhammel’s history of the 19th century as its point of departure, the course will explore how Victorian literature engages and defines critical developments that we normally associate with modernity in the 20th and the 21st centuries, especially with the imaginary of catastrophe (ranging from world wars to climate change). We will focus on a selection of texts by Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Gaskell, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Course requirements: The grade is based on a written essay at the end of term (30% of the final grade), and two tests (30% of the final grade each), as well as on active participation in the class (10% of the final grade).

WEEK 1 Osterhammel’s history of the world in the nineteenth century. The Victorians and the transformation of the world.
WEEK 2 Victorian literature: narrative transformations.
WEEK 3 Tennyson’s early poetry: psychopolitics in the 1830s and the 1840s. „The Lady of Shalott“
WEEK 4 The Industrial Revolution and the industrial novel (1): Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South.
WEEK 5 The Industrial Revolution and the industrial novel (2): Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South.
WEEK 6 Browning in the 1850s: Victorian modernities. „Love Among the Ruins“
WEEK 7 Midterm.
WEEK 8 Dickens on revolution (1): A Tale of Two Cities.
WEEK 9 Dickens on revolution (2): A Tale of Two Cities.
WEEK 10 Arnold on revolution: psychopolitics in the 1860s. „The Function of Criticism at the Present Time“
WEEK 11 The Victorian Anthropocene: John Ruskin, „The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century“
WEEK 12 The Victorian biopolitics (1): Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet.
WEEK 13 The Victorian biopolitics (2): Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet.
WEEK 14 Final discussion.
WEEK 15 Final test. Evaluation.

Required reading:
Arnold, Matthew. „The Function of Criticism at the Present Time“
Browning, Robert. Poetry (selection)
Conan Doyle, Arthur. A Study in Scarlet
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities
Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South
Ruskin, John. „The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century“
Tennyson, Alfred. Poetry (selection)
Osterhammel, Jürgen. The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century (selection)

Optional reading:
Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society, 1750-1950. 1958. (selection)
Ginzburg, Carlo. „Morelli, Freud and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and Scientific Method.“ 1980.
Gallagher, Catherine. The Industrial Reformation of English Fiction. Social Discourse and Narrative Form 1832-1867. 1985. (selection)
Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction. A Political History of the Novel. 1987. (selection)
Armstrong, Isobel. Victorian Poetry. Poetry, Politics and Poetics. 1993. (selection)
Schor, Hilary M. Dickens and the Daughter of the House. 1999. (selection)
Jordan, John O. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens. 2001. (selection)
Matus, Jill (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell. 2007. (selection)
Behlman, Lee and Anne Longmuir (eds.). Victorian Literature. Criticism and Debates. 2015. (selection)