Department of English

• Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Fisher-Bennett Hall 222

V21 Summer Reading Group Series
V21: Victorian Studies for the 21st Century is sponsoring its third annual summer reading group series in 2017, with groups convening in multiple cities.  Topics are "The Political Conscious," "Imperial Forms,” and "Utopia Now!"  The Philadelphia-area group will meet at Penn on Wednesday afternoons in June, July, and August.  All are welcome!  Come for the whole series or for just one session as your summer schedule allows, and please share widely with friends, colleagues, and students who will be in the PA/NJ/DE/NY area this summer.  For PDFs of the readings, contact Emily Steinlight.

Part 1: THE POLITICAL CONSCIOUS
June 21  2-4 PM
Fisher-Bennett 222

What are the politics of literature? Is "political literature" a genre, mode, style, or mood? What is at stake for literary criticism and literary history in associating Victorian realism with "social problems" and "the Condition of England"? What is the didactic and what is the figurative, and does "the descriptive turn" help or hinder theorizations thereof?

Readings:
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (chapters 21-24)
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature (parts 2 and 3)
Alex Woloch, Or Orwell (Prologue and Intro)