Meets the following requirements: HS   

This is an advanced course which explores in depth the works of three major writers of the Victorian period:  Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot.  The set-up of the syllabus, group meetings, and individual projects require that participants talk about connective factors between texts and the development of women writers' voices and narrative structures during this period.  Emphasis will also be placed on the construction of the heroine, the use and manipulation of the marriage plot, developments in linguistic and narrative practice, and developments in each author's work- from the juvenilia to the later fiction.  Historical perspective, gender roles, and theoretical approaches will all be taken into consideration as we analyze novels such as:  Lady Susan, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion  (Austen); The Professor, Villette, and Shirley (Bronte); and The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch (Eliot).  Rather than prepare papers and exams, participants will prepare and ask questions of each other, develop response papers and passage analyses, and carry out a sustained independent project to be presented to the group.  The outside project will involve additional research into one of the major authors, to include both the reading of another novel, biographical information, and critical analyses.  Projects will give participants the opportunity to explore a particular author, question, or form in depth.  The reading load for this tutorial is very heavy.  Evaluation will derive from an on-going peer review focusing on preparation, participation, insight, critical thinking, and the outside project- to be presented orally and developed in an analytic fashion to be determined by the class.  There will be a third week course review.  Prerequisites:  Contemporary Women's Novels and Nature of Narrative or the equivalent and permission of the instructor. 

Level:   Advanced. Offered upon request.    *HS*