Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0262 - Victorian Sensations

Ghosts, vampires, madwomen, and typists: what do these figures have in common? In this course, we will investigate the characters and events that made the Victorian period the age of sensation, from the rise of popular fiction and the illustrated newspaper to the introduction of new methods for viewing and experiencing the world on a global scale. The course will focus on nineteenth-century Britain, exploring the ways in which Victorian fiction, poetry, print and visual media give voice to the period's obsession with sensory experience. We will read Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, a tale of deception, mistaken identity and madness, alongside works by Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Arthur Conan Doyle, among others. Historians of "old" media - including telegraphy, photography, and early cinema - will assist us in exploring new technologies for communication in the nineteenth century; while media archaeologists and theorists of ephemerality, memory, and the archive will deepen our understanding of the relationship between past and present media cultures.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Writing and Research Independent Work Prerequisite details: Although it will not be assigned, students may wish to have read Bram Stoker's Dracula before the course begins! Students are expected to spend 8-10 hours in work and preparation outside of class time.