Graduate Office - Literature and Criticism Course Offerings By Semester

Course schedules are subject to change.  Please see Cathy Renwick for more information.

FALL 2006

ENGL 984: Seminar in British Literature
Dr. Cheryl Wilson

Monday 6:00-9:00 p.m.

 Rewriting the Victorians

 “Is sexual repression truly an established historical fact?” (Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I)

Despite the obvious anti-Victorian sentiment put forth in the work of Modernist writers, including Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, Victorianism continues to cast its shadow over twentieth- and twenty-first-century culture.  And, of the various Victorian stereotypes that permeate this culture, the idea of sexual prudishness is perhaps the most prevalent.  Beginning with the work of Modernist writers, including Woolf, Strachey, and May Sinclair, this course will consider how twentieth- and twenty-first century writers have rewritten the Victorians with particular attention to (re)constructions of gender and sexuality.  Framed by the emerging theoretical discourse of “postmodern Victorianism,” as well as critical/theoretical writings on gender and sexuality, the course will interrogate the presence of those “other Victorians” in contemporary fiction, including the work of A. S. Byatt, Sarah Waters, Julian Barnes, Valerie Martin, and John Fowles.  Students will be responsible for a seminar presentation, paper, and weekly discussion questions.  A basic familiarity with Victorian literature and culture is recommended, and a list of suggested reading will be available.

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