Special Topics in the Humanities (370-6-23)
Topic
Wanderlust: Travels in 19th Century Literature.
Instructors
Patricia Bredar
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
Wanderlust: Travels in Nineteenth-Century Literature
In nineteenth-century Britain, a transportation revolution forever altered how people move through the world. Although spurred in large part by technological innovations such as the advent of railway travel, this revolution also unfolded in the pages of newspapers, novels, and other literary texts. This course will explore how literature shaped meanings and experiences of travel across the nineteenth century. How did Romantic poetry help transform the mundane act of walking into a respected leisure activity (aka "hiking")? How did Victorian novels help process the shock of railway travel? How did Black transatlantic writers give voice to diasporic experience within a predominantly white British literary marketplace? These questions will take us through the English countryside, along dark Victorian streets, and across the Atlantic, guided by authors including William and Dorothy Wordsworth, William Hazlitt, Mary Prince, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mary Seacole, and Bram Stoker. While exploring how nineteenth-century authors used representations of travel to grapple with pressing issues of their day, we will also consider the ongoing legacies of these issues in contemporary culture and lived experience. To that end, the course will include several short excursions in the Chicago/Evanston area.
Teaching Method
Mini-lectures, class discussion, group work, field trips.
Evaluation Method
Students will be graded based on class participation, short papers, a presentation, and a final project.
Class Materials (Required)
The only required text for purchase will be Mary Seacole's Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (Penguin, 2005, ISBN: 978-0140439021).
All other materials will be provided as PDFs or are available free online. These include short works by William and Dorothy Wordsworth, William Hazlitt, Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf and excerpts from longer works, including Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mary Prince's History of Mary Prince, the anonymously authored The Woman of Colour, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Course materials may also include selected films, short videos, and visual works.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area