SEX AND DEATH IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE

English 164H: Spring 2002

MW 1:15-3:05pm – Building 60, Room 61A

COURSE DESCRIPTIONCOURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is focused on two of the primary – and intertwined – obsessions of Victorian culture: sex and death. We will explore these concepts on dual levels, looking at “sex” in terms of both sexuality and gender and “death” in its literal and figurative manifestations. Since these issues are inextricably linked to larger questions of nineteenth-century ideology, the thematic focus on sex/death will serve as a conduit for a more in-depth interrogation of Victorian culture. Primary texts include poetry (Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”; Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”; poems by Robert Browning), Pre-Raphaelite paintings (“Flaming June,” “The Dreamers,” “Two Women on a Sofa”), popular broadsheets and newspapers, melodrama, works of short fiction (LeFanu’s “Carmilla”) and novels (Charles Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Ryder Haggard’s She; Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray). The focus of our more historical discussions will move from Queen Victoria’s marriage and widowhood; to the Duke of Wellington’s funeral; to mid-century spiritualism and séances; to Jack the Ripper; and finally, to the Queen’s own death. Through our examination of historical events, ideologies, and cultural texts, students will gain a comprehensive overview of the ideas, genres, and personalities that help to define the Victorian age.

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