Moodle

Next to the pomp and circumstance of its triumphalism, the late Victorian age also expressed a lot of cultural uncertainty and pessimism. Darwin’s theory of evolution, the economic competition of the USA and Germany, the ever-clearer downsides of the industrial revolution and fears of political revolution and invasion fed into novels and short stories that envisioned decay and post-apocalyptic scenarios. In this seminar, we will closely read and contextualise some of the most important dystopias of the time. Our core texts will be Richard Jefferies’ After London and two of H. G. Wells’s most famous early science fiction novels, The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau. We will also consider a few other late Victorian texts dystopias, and if we have time, we will discuss film versions of The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau.

 Texts: You must own and read the following editions:

- Richard Jefferies. After London; or Wild England. Ed. Mark Frost. (Edinburgh Critical Editions of Nineteenth-Century Texts.) Edinburgh University Press, 2017.   ISBN 9781474441315 [paperback]

- H. G. Wells. The Great Science Fiction: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, Short Stories. Penguin, 2016.   ISBN 9780241277492 [paperback]

Other relevant texts will be made available.

This course introduces students to theories and methods of cultural studies as they emerged out of literary studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a process that is still ongoing in the twenty-first century. It therefore focuses on both the histories and the contemporary applications of cultural studies. It discusses major theorists, theories and methods, and it offers case studies that illustrate the applications of those. In order to do all this, we will discuss a range of verbal and visual texts.

The written exam will take place Monday, 3 February 2025, 14:15 to 15:45.

 Text: You need to own, read and bring to the respective meetings:

Peter Barry. Beginning Theory. 4th edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017.   ISBN 978-1-5261-2179-0

Other texts will be made available.