Among many innovations that brought complexity and new definition to life and literature in England in the 19th Century, the early Victorians wrestled with the concept of the present as “Modern” in senses never before so broadly conceived. From a broad range of fiction, non-fictional prose, poetry, and drama, this course will center on the problematic term “modern.”
Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th edition, vol. E, The Victorian Age
A Christmas Carol, any edition, but be careful to avoid children’s or other versions differing from Dickens’s original.