ENGL 345: Special Topics Literary Surveys
Fall 2008
Professor Rosemary Jann

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"Decadents and Edwardians" MW 1:30-2:45
This survey of British literature written between1880 and 1915 covers several literary movements. As the "fin de siécle" ("end of the century") approached, artists and writers mounted various challenges to the earnestness and respectability that had characterized Victorian society. The art-for-art's-sake movement, centered on Oscar Wilde, championed aesthetic beauty over moral messages and was considered by many in the mainstream to represent evidence of cultural decadence. Fantasy works like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the Sherlock Holmes stories probed psychological anxieties that underlie Victorian respectability. The feminism of the "new woman" evoked consideration by novelists like George Gissing and playwrights like George Bernard Shaw, while novelists like John Galsworthy and E.M. Forster focused on challenges to the Victorian class system. Required readings will include poetry, drama, and fiction. Required work will include several short papers and a final examination. Check back later in the spring for the list of books ordered for the course. Send questions to rjann@gmu.edu.