English 377
Survey of Victorian Literature

Fall 2005

TR 3:00-4:15 p.m. in 1012 CASL Building

If there's room for poets in this world,
Their sole work is to represent the age,
Their age, not Charlemagne's,--this live, throbbing age,
That brawls, cheats, maddens, calculates, aspires,
And spends more passion, more heroic heat,
Betwixt the mirrors of its drawing-rooms,
Than Roland with his knights at Roncesvalles.

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh



 
 

Instructor: Jonathan Smith
Office: 3084 CASL Building
Office Phone: 313-436-9187
Office Hours: TR 1:00-2:30 p.m. and by appointment
E-mail: jonsmith@umich.edu
Class E-mail Address: umd.eng377@umich.edu

English 377 surveys the major poetry and non-fiction prose of the Victorian period. Emphasis is placed on setting these writers and works in their historical and cultural contexts, with special attention to the Victorians' attitudes toward politics and society, aesthetics, religion, gender, science and nature, education, and history. In the process we will of course give attention to the major literary movements of the period, such as Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism, and we will ground our study of the works in close textual readings.

Texts
Course Requirements and Grades
Syllabus
Discussion Questions
Web Assignments
Writing a Literature Paper
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Advice on Studying for and Taking Exams