English 155B - Winter, 2013

19th Century British Novel

Class Information

Instructor: Roy, Parama
Time: CANCELLED

Description

English 155B: The Nineteenth-Century British Novel

This course is devoted to what is arguably the pre-eminent literary product of nineteenth-century Britain: the novel. It will combine detailed critical reading of four novels (Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and Lady Audley’s Secret) with a consideration of the intellectual, social, economic, and political contexts out of which these texts emerged. We will consider the following topics, among others: science, progress, and perfectibility; class, money, debt, inheritance, work, and gentlemanliness; monsters, madwomen, foundlings, orphans, and aliens; law, criminality, and punishment; and domesticity, marriage, and gendered codes of conduct. We will also devote some attention to the practices of novel reading, writing, and publication in this period.







Grading

Grading
Midterm; term paper; quizzes; posts to an online forum; final.

Texts

Wuthering Heights, ed. Richard J. Dunn (Norton critical edition--4th edition), Emily Bronte
Lady Audley’s Secret, ed. Natalie M. Houston (Broadview Press), Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Great Expectations, ed. Edgar Rosenberg (Norton Critical Edition), Charles Dickens
Frankenstein, ed. J. Paul Hunter (Norton Critical Edition–2nd edition), Mary Shelley