Advanced Studies
in the 19th Century: Victorian Interpretations of History
Fall Term 2000
People
will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
Besides, the people of England well know, that the idea of inheritance
furnishes a sure principle of conservation and a sure principle of transmission;
without at all excluding a principle of improvement….Our political system
is placed in a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of the world,
and with the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of
transitory parts; wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding
together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole,
at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but, in a condition
of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual
decay, fall, renovation, and progression. Thus, by preserving the method
of nature in the conduct of the state, in what we improve, we are never
wholly new; in what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete.—Edmund
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
The
course will explore the Victorian obsession with specific historical periods—Medieval,
Renaissance, Restoration and the 18th Century—as the authors
attempt to understand themselves and their society in light of the past.
We will study the specific genres (historical novel, idyll, polemical essay,
Whig history) the writers employ as well as the ways in which the English
past influences 19th century culture and society. Though the
major texts are available in the D.U. bookstore, some required materials
will be both on reserve at Penrose and also available for Xeroxing in the
department.
In
addition to a midterm examination, you will be asked (1) to write a short
response paper to several reviews of one of the works read in the class,
(2) to prepare an annotated bibliography for a new edition of one of the
works, (3) to write a new introduction based on your analysis of past and
recent scholarship to one of the works on the syllabus, and (4) to give
a brief synopsis of your project in class.
Please
make every effort to attend all classes. Absences in such a short quarter
will cause you to fall behind. Since the course is heavily historical,
you may wish to peruse a short general history of England such as Kenneth
O. Morgan, The Oxford History of Briton, or a more specific history
like Kenyon’s Stuart England, Kishlansky’s Monarchy Transformed:
Britain 1603-1714, Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837,
Woodward, The Age of Reform 1815-1870.
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Week One
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9/12
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9/14
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Week Two
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9/19
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Macaulay,
The
History of England (to Ch. 17 “The Non-jurors”)
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9/21
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Macaulay,
The
History of England (finish)
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Week Three
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9/26
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Scott,
Waverley
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9/28
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Scott,
Waverley
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Week Four
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10/3
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Lukács,
The
Historical Novel
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10/5
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Carlyle, Fr.
The
French Revolution
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Week Five
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10/10
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Dickens,
A
Tale of Two Cities
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10/12
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Dickens,
A
Tale of Two Cities
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Week Six
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10/17
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Midterm Examination
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10/19
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Ruskin, “The
Nature of the Gothic” (Xerox)
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Pater,
Studies
in the History of the Renaissance
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Week Seven
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10/24
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Eliot,
Romola
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10/26
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Eliot,
Romola
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Week Eight
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10/31
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Browning, poems
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11/2
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Browning, poems
Arnold, “Hebraism
and Hellenism,” “Sweetness and Light” (Xerox)
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Week Nine
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11/7
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Keats, poems
(Xerox)
Tennyson, poems
Hallam, “Poets
of Sensation” (Xerox)
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11/9
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No class: work
on final projects
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Week Ten
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11/14
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Presentations
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11/16
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Presentations
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