Sensational Sales: Victorian Popular Literature 1848-1894

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. Engage with theoretical and critical debates (both of the time and of more recent scholars) about genre and popularity in the Victorian period.
2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the broader historical, commercial and cultural contexts that shaped the texts studied on the module.
3. Produce critical work that engages in close textual analysis, employs relevant critical approaches, and makes reference to contemporary contexts and sources.
4. Demonstrate enhanced skills of independent thought and research.

‘Sensational Sales: Victorian Popular Literature, 1848-94’ considers Victorian literature in terms of its bestsellers, some of which have fallen from fame in the years since their initial publication. Why have some of these texts become part of the literary ‘canon’ whereas others have vanished from all but the dustiest of bookshelves? In this module, we will consider what it means to be popular in the Victorian period, and think about the new genres and readerships that emerged in this period. We will analyse the texts, which include sensation fiction, poetry, and the gothic, in conjunction with contemporary non-fictional writing by the likes of Ruskin, Samuel Smiles, Mrs Beeton and others in order to contextualize them within debates about gender, class, empire and literary celebrity.

Estimated Student Workload
Contact time 20 hours
Reading and preparation - 100 hours
Independent study preparing for seminars/assignments - 80 hours

This module will add to the suite of option modules available on our MA programme in literary studies. The module comprises a variety of genres and therefore has the potential to echo and build upon students’ experiences in other sections of the MA programme. Students will be encouraged to conduct additional research using Victorian newspaper and periodicals databases, which may open up new routes into dissertation work.

Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Sex, scandal and social criticism - Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
Session 3: Workshop: Periodicals and print culture
Session 4: Literary celebrity and self-made men - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861)
Session 5: Workshop: Viewing the Victorians
Session 6: Sensation fiction - Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862)
Session 7: Popular literature and protest - Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (1877)
Session 8: Workshop: Writing (as) the Victorians
Session 9: Mesmerising popularity? The forgotten bestseller - George du Maurier, Trilby (1894)
Session 10: Module conclusions

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 7