Dept. of English Literature
Trent University (Peterborough)
English 3401H (Winter semester): Victorian Literature and Society
Special topic for Winter 2013: “Victorian Nature: Human, Social, Environmental”
Instructor: Dr. Suzanne Bailey
Lecture: Mondays 10 a.m., TC101
Seminars: Mondays 12 p.m /1 p.m./ 2 p.m., Wallis Hall 102
Office: Traill College Wallis Hall 134
Administrative Assistant: P. Heffernan
Phone: ext. 6039
Office hours: by appointment
E-mail: sjbailey@trentu.ca
Course Description and Objectives:
An examination of some of the tumultuous social and scientific changes occurring in the Victorian period
and their impact on understandings of nature, religion, art and the imagination. We begin with a
contemporary novella, A.S. Byatt’s “Angels and Insects,” a twentieth-century interpretation of Victorian
class structures and of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary discoveries. We then examine the Victorian
source-material that Byatt draws on, from Tennyson’s In Memoriam to science-writer Arabella Buckley’s
The Fairy-land of Science. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh offers a perspective on changes
affecting women and gender roles in mid-Victorian Britain. Dickens’ Hard Times provides an overview
of the impact of industrialization and raises questions about the nature of compassion and integrity in the
face of new practices of social control. We will examine the resistance to mass production and new
industrial and technological processes through the writing of art critic John Ruskin, whose work
influences the art of the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as the aesthetic values of photographer Julia Margaret
Cameron.
On completing the course, students will have gained an understanding and appreciation of the
richness and variety of Victorian literary culture and its enduring impact on the literature and culture of
our own time.
Please check http://www.trentu.ca/admin/mytrent/AcademicTimetable.htm to confirm
times and locations.
Evaluation:
Format: Lecture and seminar weekly.
Evaluation: Seminars: 20%, based on participation/attendance and poster presentation.
Poster presentation: Many academic conferences have ‘poster’ sessions, in which researchers create a
standard size ‘poster’ containing key points and illustrations that highlight research findings. Each student
in the course will be asked to create a poster for a specific work and to present this in seminar. In the
lecture period of 25 March, all students will bring their poster to lecture, for a class poster presentation
session. Failure to participate in this session will result in a 5% deduction from the participation grade.
(But really, this session should be fun). Presenters who sign up for Flatland will need to prepare material
in advance.
Reading quiz: 20% requires some details about coverage and format—is it a passage analysis? Essay:
30%. The essay must include a 100-word abstract (summary of argument
with key points). Statement about essay topics and instructions (will be on Blackboard 9, for
example)
Final exam: 30% requires some details about format and expectations
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25% must be back to studentsby March 8
Essays: In order to be fair to all students, late essays will be penalized at 2% per day and receive no
comments. Essays submitted more than one week after the deadline will not be accepted. Essay topics
will be distributed in advance and made available on Blackboard.
Academic Integrity:
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely serious academic offence
and carries penalties varying from a 0 grade on an assignment to expulsion from the University.
Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent
University’s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself – unfamiliarity with
the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit Trent’s Academic Integrity website to
learn more: www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.
Access to Instruction:
It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a student
has a disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may need
accommodations to succeed in this course, the student should contact the Disability
Services Office (BH Suite 132, 748 1281disabilityservices@trentu.ca). for Trent
University in Oshawa Disability Services office contact 905-435-5100. Complete text can be
found under Access to Instruction in the Academic Calendar.
Required Texts:
Abbott Abbott, Edwin. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Broadview.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh. Norton.
Buckley, Arabella. The Fairy-land of Science (on-line resource)
Byatt, A.S. “Morpho Eugenia” in Angels and Insects. Random House.
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. Broadview.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Broadview.
Lukitsh, Joanne. Julia Margaret Cameron. Phaidon Press.
Ruskin, Selected Prose. Oxford.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. In Memoriam in The Major Works. Oxford or any other edition.
Schedule of Lectures, Readings and Assignments:
Jan. 7
Introduction: A.S. Byatt, “Angels and Insects” [Seminars begin]
Themes: travel, Darwin’s discoveries, excitement about the natural world, class hierarchy, loss of
religious faith, religious doubt.
Jan . 14
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach.” Arabella Buckley, The Fairy-land of Science.
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=buckley&book=fairyland&story=_contents
Jan. 21
Not Natural: Hard Times
Themes: the new ‘science’ of statistics, the rising middle-class, education, social class; the place of the
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imagination vs. science, gender
Jan. 28
Hard Times
Feb. 4
Science and Nature: Tennyson, In Memoriam
Themes: death of a close friend (A.H.H.), coming to terms with loss, religious belief, new ideas about
nature; new images for natural landscapes.
Feb. 11
Quiz, passage analysis
Feb. 18
READING WEEK
Feb. 24
Aurora Leigh
March 4
Pre-Raphaelite Photography: the photography of Julia Margaret Cameron
March 11
John Ruskin, Pre-Raphaelite Poetry and the visual arts
(selections from D. G. Rossetti and Christina Rossetti, Blackboard 9)
March 18
Collins, The Moonstone
March 25
Moonstone
April 1
Flatland
TAKE-HOME EXAM
Seminars: Aurora Leigh
ESSAY PROPOSAL DUE (must contain thesis statement)
ESSAY DUE
LECTURE period: Class poster session (bring your
poster)
Review