Department of English

Almost every popular fictional genre we consume today – detective novel, spy thriller, ghost story, treasure hunt, imperial romance, invasion scenario, monster tale, science fiction, true crime narrative – has roots in the late Victorian period. During the boom years of 1880-1910, all of these genres took on a recognizably modern form. And those forms have been astonishingly durable; they continue to dominate the popular imagination. This course is designed to investigate several key texts in those emerging blockbuster genres as well as their contemporary adaptations in order to figure out why Victorian Mythologies still exert so much cultural force. As we go, we will track both the modernization and the Americanization of plots that were conceived and codified in the twilight of Britain’s global influence. The seminar takes a cue from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999), and we will begin our inquiry there. What veins of cultural memory and narrative desire are tapped in Moore’s revival of Captain Nemo, Mina Murray, Sherlock Holmes, and Allen Quatermain? With that query in mind, we will then read and discuss the works of H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Robert Louis Stevenson, and John Buchan. Here we will find the canonical modern swashbucklers and spies, detectives and mad scientists, explorers and female action heroes. Course requirements will include active weekly participation (including reading journals), two short essays (1000 words), and a long independent research paper (4000 words).