Descriptif
In this seminar we will examine a very broad range of poetry produced by men and women under the reign of Queen Victoria. This was a period of paradox: industrialization, and Britain's growing imperial power led both to enormous optimism as well as suffering (the causes of the latter eloquently described by one of the great Victorian gentlemen, Karl Marx); the emergence of 'the woman question' and discussion of the survival of 'primitive instinct' began to reshape ideas of sexuality and to challenge notions of married life, while Darwin's discoveries began to shake religious belief. We will trace these social contexts in our reading. Topics to be considered in addition to those above will include gender, poetic form and the idea of the printed voice, the return of the past, grief and melancholy, work, progress, weariness and the desire for rest, and the effect of commodity culture on poetry. We'll look in detail at the work of some of the key poets across the period (including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, the Brownings, Emily Brontë, Swinburne, Arnold), as well as some Victorian poetic theory.
Semester:
Stufe:
BA
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Literatur
Hochschultyp:
Universitäre Hochschulen (UH)