In 1831, John Stuart Mill wrote in The Spirit of the Age: "mankind have outgrown old institutions and old doctrines, and have not yet acquired new ones." This is a very accurate take on the dawning of the Victorian era. It was, above all else, a period of transition. The literature of the period reflects this sentiment. While it is certainly true that all literature reflects its historical time period, the Victorian era produced a truly unique body of work. In an era when the "sun never set on the British Empire," the novels, poems and essays of the era are like no other. This course will introduce students to this rich body of work. By the course's end, students will have examined these works through a number of theoretical lenses, including a Postcolonial Studies lens. Students will have the ability to analyze and interpret texts and make connections between literature and its time period.

Class discussion topics include: The Industrial Revolution, Science and the advent of psychology, The "Woman Question," the notion of progress, Aestheticism, The Victorian Childhood, and Imperialism.

Course Texts:

• Fiction: George Eliot's Middlemarch; Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone ; Charles Dickens's David Copperfield; Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
• Drama: George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession
• Poetry: Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover," Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese and "The Cry of the Children," Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market," Oscar Wilde's "The Harlot's House," Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam" and "Ulysses," Coventry Patmore's "The Angel of the House"
• Non-Fiction:John Stuart Mill's On Liberty; excerpts from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species ; excerpts from various critical essays ofJohn Ruskin