ENG485 Victorian Literature and Society
Course Aims This course focuses on the novels of the Victorian age (c. 1837-1901). It will approach key Victorian novels through issues such as science, industrialization, colonialism, city and poverty, judicial systems and aesthetics. Multiple critical approaches will also be included, such as Romanticism, Social Darwinism, Historicism and Neo-historicism, Aestheticism and Decadence, Gothicism and many more. Students will explore important social, cultural, and intellectual issues of the period and consider how literary writers engaged with the concerns of their time. They will discover how writers depicted the conflicts and collaborations of ideological issues in the vibrant yet turbulent Victorian era. By the end of the course, students will be able to recognize and analyse the intersections between Victorian literature and society and evaluate its continuing significance in the contemporary world.