WiSe 21/22: PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Neo-Victorianism
Claudia Lorraine Rumson
Comments
Swirling hoop skirts, frowning photographs, rib-crushing corsets, opium addictions, pious churchgoers, rigid gender roles, sexual repression, and people putting socks on pianos to hide their legs. For the past hundred years, England and Anglophone countries have looked back at the Victorian period with a mix of fascination, reverence, scorn, and disgust, using it either as an ideal to be emulated or a cautionary example of the "bad old days." Neo-Victorianism, the blanket term for content that harkens back to the Victorians, looks at the Victorian period through a modern lens, often with modern ethics.
In this class, we will explore various types of twentieth- and twenty-first century media dealing with Victorian England. Using these examples, participants will have the opportunity to practice the fundamentals of cultural studies, and explore how neo-Victorian media deals with issues like sex, power, and injustice.
Course readings will be made available on Blackboard prior to the start of the course.
Full credit can be obtained on the basis of regular participation in class discussions, contributions to class activities (e.g., student presentations and response papers) and the eventual submission of a research paper of approximately 2000 words.
close16 Class schedule
Regular appointments