English 284 - Victorian Sexualities

Cornelia Pearsall

MW 1.10-2.30

The Victorians have long been viewed as sexually repressed, but close attention reveals a culture whose inventiveness regarding sexual identity, practice and discourse knew few bounds. This interdisciplinary course will explore a range of literary, visual and scientific representations of Victorian sexuality. We will read novels, nonfiction prose and poetry by authors suck as Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Charles Darwin, Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti and Oscar Wilde. We will make use of visual materials, including Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Aubrey Beardsley illustrations and photographs by Lewis Carroll and others. Literary readings will be informed by victorian sexologists such as Freud, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis, as well as current theoretical writings. Topics include Victorian marriage, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and the eroticization of childhood.

Requirements: two papers and a final exam.

Prerequisite: ENG 120, 199, or equivalent writing-intensive course.