Course Overview

History 4255: Victoria's Britain: Gender, Class and Culture in the Age of Empire

The term "Victorian" conjures up conservative stereotypes of prudish behavior and tasteless furnishings. With the assistance of writers like Lytton Strachey, by the early years of the 20th century, to be Victorian was to be old-fashioned. In reality, however, the Victorians lived in a rapidly changing society, affected by urbanization, technology and political radicalism; they considered themselves every bit as modern as the post World War I generation that later criticized them.

This course invites students into the Victorian era in an attempt to get past the myths and see the Victorians as they lived and thought. Thematic readings and discussions consider such topics as the social order and class consciousness; the construction of gender roles and separate spheres; literacy and the education of the working class; popular responses to Imperialism; and the developing importance of sport, leisure and the mass market for consumer goods. While enhancing our understanding of the nineteenth-century, written assignments, course readings and classroom discussions will develop skills aimed at critical reading, analytical writing and the application of scholarly research practices.