Course Syllabus

Course Syllabus & Information

Schedule of Readings

[Page numbers are from the Longman Anthology. The schedule is for your readings: lecture inevitably keeps to is own, cheerful, responsive & organic, timetable.]

Week One
Perspectives: 1137
Fanny Kemble 1140
Parliamentary Papers 1143
Henry Mayhew 1158

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
To George Sand x2 1198

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Aurora Leigh 1203

Week Two
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shalott 1235
The Charge of the Light Brigade 1291
The Higher Pantheism + Response 1327-8

Week Three
Charles Darwin:
On the Origin of Species .... 1357

John Henry, Cardinal Newman
from Apologia Pro Vita Sua 1390
Thomas Henry Huxley
from Evolution & Ethics 1398

Robert Browning
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came + Response 1427

Week Four
Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol 1464 (w.1520)
Elizabeth Gaskell
Our Society at Cranford 1522

Week Five
Thomas Hardy
The Withered Arm 1538
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Scandal in Bohemia 1556

Week Six
John Ruskin
from The Stones of Venice 1580-1590

Florence Nightingale
Cassandra 1608

Perspectives Victorian Ladies & Gentlemen 1626

Sarah Ellis 1632
John Henry, Cardinal Newman 1638
Queen Victoria 1651

Matthew Arnold
Dover Beach 1662
Culture & Anarchy: from Sweetness & Light 1695

Week Seven to Week Nine
George Gissing
In the Year of Jubilee

Week Ten
Dante Gabriel Rosetti
The Kiss 1718
The Burden of Ninevah 1719

Christina Rosetti
Goblin Market 1731

Week Eleven
Robert Louis Stevenson 1840

Hilaire Belloc 1845

Rudyard Kipling
Without Benefit of Clergy 1860
Gunga Din 1882

Week Twelve and Week Thirteen
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest 2003

Schedule of Assignment Due Dates:
Assignment details in "Pertinent & Impertinent" Links.

Nb: There is a four percent per day late penalty for all assignments, documented medical or bereavement leave excepted. For medical exemptions, provide a letter on a Physician's or Surgeon's letterhead which declares his or her medical judgement that illness or injury prevented work on the assignment. The letter must cover the entire period over which the assignment was scheduled and may be verified by telephone. For bereavement leave, simply provide, ex post facto, a copy of the order of service or other published notice of remembrance.

January 14th: Close Reading Project: release date.
February 4th or 6th: Updated Group Project Proposal due date.
February 25th: Close Reading Project: due date.
March 3rd: Mid-Term Essay topics posted.
March 31st: Mid-Term Essay due in lecture.
Week of March 24th & 26th: Unofficial Reading Break: No Lecture or Seminar .
April 2nd or April 7th: Group Project due date in-seminar.
April 12th 3:30-18:30: Final Exam.

Lecture Quizzes
There will be fourteen quizzes in Lecture throughout the Term: seven in the first half and seven in the second half. The quizzes will be given on random dates and at random times in the Lecture; on occasion twice in the same Lecture. Each quiz will have one question only, and the answer will be a gimmie. If all seven quizzes for the first half of Term are handed in to the Tutorial leader, the mark on the Close Reading assignment will be bumped up to the next letter grade in the scale. If all seven quizzes for the second half of Term are handed in to the Tutorial leader, the mark on the Final Exam will be bumped up to the next letter grade in the scale.

Research material is available on Library Reserve.

Nb: “Participation requires both attendance and punctuality ."

Instructor Contact:
Expanded Office Hours: AQ 6094 -- Monday two thirty to five thirty, Tuesday ten o'clock to noon, Wednesday two thirty to three o'clock, Thursday ten o'clock to noon. Bring your coffee and discuss course matters freely. E-mail to ogden@sfu.ca Use your SFU account for e-mail contact. Other e-Mail accounts are blocked by white-list.

Course Approach:

Surveying, analysing, understanding and enjoying the vast empire of literature in the nineteenth century, concentrating on the material written under the majestic matriarch, Victoria Regina. Attendance and enagegment in lecture, discussion and exchange in seminar, careful and close reading of course material, and group study and presentation of contemporary Victorian cool are the requirements of the course.