LFU:online

·       Students will analyse and discuss the discourse around the ‘New Woman’ in late Victorian literature and culture.

·       Students will critically examine the relations between literary and aesthetic developments, on the one hand, and socio-political and cultural contexts, on the other.

·       Students will be introduced to the methodology of the analysis of narrative texts; they will be able to apply these techniques to a range of novels and short stories from the late nineteenth century.

In this seminar, we will explore the discourse that evolved around the phenomenon of the New Woman in late Victorian literature and culture. We will situate it in the social, economic, political, and aesthetic context of its time and consider the New Woman in light of the suffragette movement, socialism, imperialism, and decadence. We will engage with the intellectual debate around femininity and gender roles in non-fictional writings, for example in the periodical press, and will explore aesthetic representations of the New Woman in key novels and short stories from the late 19^th century. 

Discussion, presentation, group work, mid-term essay 

·       oral (presentation; active participation in class)

·       written (mid-term essay; final paper)

Please purchase the following novels (ideally Oxford or Penguin editions):

·       George Gissing, The Odd Women

·       Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

All other reading materials will be made available on OLAT.

BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 10

Teacher Training Programme BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 13

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.