ENL 6256  ISSUES IN VICTORIAN CULTURE: THE WOMAN QUESTION IN THE FIN DE SIÈCLE

This course will study later Victorian poetry, drama, prose fiction, painting, graphic arts, clothing fashion, and contemporary
(Victorian) works of cultural criticism and critical theory, not only for the value of the works themselves but also as a means of examining the Victorian fin-de-siècle’s views of gender identity, especially in relation to the notorious “Woman Question.”

We will first try to understand some of the aesthetic and cultural assumptions of the eighteen-nineties, applying those assumptions to texts that revolve around the figure of woman.  We will then read contemporary commentary on the issues raised by “The Woman Question” and use those issues to contextualize the works of some canonical late Victorian artists, as well as important (if generally neglected) non-canonical ones.  We will not be focusing in depth on any one artist, but rather, studying (albeit fairly briefly) an unusually large number of figures, in order to try to capture the full range of debate on one of the most critical issues of the period.  The artists we will study, in addition to various Victorian feminist and anti-feminist essayists, are Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Max Beerbohm, the Pre-Raphaelites, Ernest Dowson, Henry Harland, Victoria Cross, Hubert Crackanthorpe, Grant Allen, Arthur Wing Pinero, George Egerton [Mary Chavelita Dunne], Ella D’Arcy, Olive Custance, Mathilde Blind, Graham R. Thomson [Rosamund Marriott Watson], Michael Field [Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper], Mary E. Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Aubrey Beardsley.

The course will try specifically to organize the student’s efforts toward producing a publishable professional article.  Approximately 50% of the student’s grade will depend on the term paper (and the supporting bibliographical work and reading of theoretical texts).  The other 50% will be based on the quality of weekly reading notes, as well as the degree of preparation for and participation in the discussions of the scheduled course material.

Program Status:
May count toward fulfilling the requirements for several possible program “tracks,” not just the Victorian Studies track.