The middle of the 19th century was the first period of human history when a modern, industrial economy would permit all people to live in the same house, light the same gas lamp, wear the same clothing, read the same newspapers and novels, think the same thoughts and behave exactly like their neighbors. When John Stuart Mill wrote his celebrated essay On Liberty in 1859 he was troubled more by this massive conformity than by the restrictions of the antiquated monarchies or the possibilities of modern dictatorship. Public Opinion was more dangerous, according to Mill, than Secret Police. We will begin our study of non-conformity in 19th century Britain with a bit of nonsense (poems by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland) followed by careful reading of Mill, On Liberty (1859) and the Subjection of Women (1869), R. L. Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, Oscar Wilde’s hilarious Importance of Being Earnest, and Thomas Hardy’s gloomy masterpiece, Jude the Obscure. Each in its way will take us to the periphery of late Victorian England and permit us to reflect on the perils of industrial and imperial power. Lecture/Discussion/Short Essays.

Texts
J. S. Mill, On Liberty and Other Writings
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Robert Lewis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure