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Instructors: Sarah Wegener
Event type:
Seminar/proseminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.874.123
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
8,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Registration group: BS/ELC 123
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Contents:
The Victorian age is often associated with austerity and repressive moral conduct. The ideology of the century governed the lives of men and women and allotted them rigid places in a very hierarchical, male-centred system. The role of the woman, as “angel of the house” consisted in being wife and mother - domestic, innocent and pious. At the same time, the Victorian period witnessed an upsurge of women’s lyrical production that provided a female counterpart to the public discourse of the time, challenging deep-rooted beliefs and ideas.
The aim of this course is therefore to study the various representations of poetic expression by Victorian women poets which disclose well-informed, powerful, often subversive, and sometimes shocking verses. In how far does women’s poetry reflect their own struggle within their role in a binary gender system? How do they position themselves with topics such as marriage and motherhood and how to they confront sensitive issues of female fallenness, immorality or death? In short, how do they develop a poetic alternative to the male-dominated views of the century? These are only some of the questions we will try to answer during the semester.
Recommended reading list:
Texts and course materials will be made available on the reader at the beginning of the semester.
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