Representing Poverty in the Victorian Novel
Dan Bivona profile
R 6:30-9:10
In this course, we will be considering the many ways in which middle
class Victorian writers represented the poor and working classes in
their novels. Our focus will be less on what poverty is in itself
than on what the Victorian middle class imagined poverty to be. The
novelists we will be discussing include Disraeli, Gaskell, Dickens,
Eliot, Hardy, Morrison, and Gissing. Their novels will be
supplemented with readings from Henry Mayhew's London Labour, London
Poor, Carlyle's Past and Present, and Engels' Condition of the English
Working Class. Requirements include active participation in class
discussion and four brief critical papers.
updated 2006-10-05
