English 323 - Gender & Class/Victorian Novel

This course will investigate how representations of gender and class serve as a structuring principle in the development of the genre of the Victorian novel in Britain. We will devote significant attention to the construction of Victorian femininity and masculinity in relation to class identity, marriage as a sexual contract, and the gendering of labor. The texts chosen for this course also reveal how gender and class are constructed in relation to other axes of identity in the period, such as race, sexuality, and national character. Novelists will include Dickens, Eliot, Gaskell, C. Bronte, and Hardy. Supplementary readings in literary criticism and theory.

This course is open to Juniors and Seniors.; Prereq: 8 credits from English, including ENGL-220 or ENGL-230.