| Instructor: Dr Julia Gardner |
The period from the 1790s to the 1890s saw the development of many attitudes, conventions and literary representations that continue to influence thinking about love --and its possible outcomes-- even today. In this course, students will learn to bring various interpretive strategies to bear on their reading of both canonical texts and lesser-known works as we consider the possibilities for love, marriage, and beyond. At the same time, students will also learn to read various types of literature: examples of fiction, prose, poetry and drama will all be covered.
“If you think, from this prelude, that anything like a romance is preparing for you, reader, you never were more mistaken.” So says the narrator of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Shirley. Students of this course would do well to heed this cautionary opening: rather than reading these works simply as “love stories,” one of our objectives will be to read carefully to determine the many kinds of cultural work performed by literary representations of love and marriage. We will first read two texts that approach the subject humorously: Jane Austen’s Emma and Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Next we shall consider novels in which marriage is portrayed as frightening and even deadly, such as Lady Audley’s Secret and other examples of the gothic and sensational. Finally, we will read texts that abandon the marriage plot altogether in their representations of love. Readings will include Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” (to be read alongside selected Pontianak stories), Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” excerpts from Wilde’s “De Profundis,” and Singaporean short stories from the late nineteenth century.
No previous study of literature is required, although students will preferably have completed the Critical Thinking and Writing module before taking this one. Performance will be assessed by the following means: two formal essays (first essay 4-5 pages, second essay 6-8 pages), secondary readings response, informal writing assignments, and class participation.
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