This course reads representative late nineteenth-century texts, which may include novels, short stories, plays, poetry, or even musical hall songs and pantomime. The aim is to situate these texts in a society that is still very much embedded in Victorian ideas and ideals but that is at the same time looking towards the twentieth century and its changing views of life, the world and literature. Course themes alongside the regular issues of class, race and gender may include: social changes, the changing subject, 10 devolution, degeneration, the reading public and the publishing industry, genre and modality (romance, realism, aestheticism), ‘elite’ and ‘popular’ art, and others.

a selection of late nineteenth-century texts including novels, short stories, plays, poetry, musical hall songs and pantomime.

issues of class, race and gender may include: social changes, the changing subject, 10 devolution, degeneration, the reading public and the publishing industry.