Victorian Realism
ENGL 266
Spring 2007
| Section:
01
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Victorian novels are often called "realistic." Reviewers applauded novelists for the lifelike fidelity of their representations of contemporary life, wherein the literate public discovered recognizable cityscapes and rural scenes, and familiar characters whose lives unfold in chronological sequence as they pursue their familiar occupations. Novels are sometimes compared to photographs, a new technology of visual representation that seemed to hold up a mirror to the world. Nonfictional writing declares itself to be realistic, too: writers commissioned by newspapers sent back reports on "London labor and the London poor" which in their elaborate investigative detail and evocation of character are not unlike novelistic fictions. In this course we will read Victorian novels, non-fictional essays, and 19th-century literary criticism to ask what makes a work "realistic" and will read recent theoretical and critical work on realism as well. Our project will be to study both the formal elements of realistic representation and the effects such representations have in the world. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: ENGL201 |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Austen, Jane, EMMA
Eliot, George, MIDDLEMARCH
Trollope, Anthony, DOCTOR THORN
Dickens, Charles, BLEAK HOUSE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three 500-word essays explicating one sentence from a critical/theoretical reading in
relation to a single scene (no more than two paragraphs in length) from a novel
An oral presentation on your research
A research paper of 20 pages |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the research option requirement for English honors candidates. |
| Instructor(s): Crosby,Christina Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: DWNY100; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 9 | JR major: 10 | | |
| Seats Available: 11 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: X | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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