Department of English

• Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Fisher-Bennett Hall room 222

V21 Summer Reading Group Series 

V21: Victorian Studies for the 21st Century is sponsoring its fourth annual summer reading group series in 2018, with groups convening in multiple cities.  Topics are “Work," “Blackness," and “Sex."  The Philadelphia-area group will meet at Penn on June 21, July 19, and August 16 2-4pm.  All are welcome! 

Part 1: WORK

June 21  2-4 PM

Fisher-Bennett 222

What are the challenges and opportunities of aesthetically representing work?  How do the radical transformations in work wrought by the industrial revolution, urbanization, and enclosure materialize in Victorian literature and other media?  Do equally radical transformations separate C19 work from C21 work?  Can work be theorized?

Readings:

Ford Maddox Brown, Work (painting)

Karl Marx, "The Working Day"

Carolyn Lesjak, Working Fictions intro and conclusion

Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work Intro and Epilogue