ENGL 3336

Victorian writers faced unprecedented changes in an age in which cities and industries expanded and the British empire reached its limits. The narratives that these storytellers produced for an increasingly literate audience shaped what Victorians understood about themselves and their place in this rapidly modernizing world. Selected narratives from this vibrant print culture will reveal how the period’s social upheavals and cultural transformations catalyzed literary experimentation and new genres. We will primarily focus on fiction, which could be supplemented by other genres from the period. Such texts may contend with some of the era’s pivotal themes and topics such as the impact of new technologies, the "Woman Question," the effects of Darwinism and burgeoning religious doubt, the Victorian Gothic, nation- and empire-building, and the struggle between classes.