Besides those times in AP Literature where I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights senior year of high school, I have no knowledge of what encompasses Victorian literature. To start, I would of course like to acquire a basic understanding of which are the bounds of Victorian literature, and its deeper characteristics. I hope to also learn more about the features of the humanities of this time – the politics, history, philosophies, and religion, that inspired these works of literature. I’m interested to see the crossovers of themes between the novels and excerpts that we read, so I will be able to have a broader scope of this literature.

Last semester in our Lit & Lit in the Digital Age, we thoroughly talked about modern day connections. I am curious to compare and contrast what I learned about connections then, to Victorian connections, and really develop my knowledge of connections farther. Another aspect I am eager to learn about is the way gender played into this literature. Since some major authors during this time were women, I wonder in what ways their work differs from the male authors of this time. Especally since women weren’t equal or completely respected, I am interested to learn about their struggles of writing and publishing. 

Overall, I am excited to take this course, and develop a new range of literature and knowledge about the Victorian Era. Besides exploring the connections and gender roles, I am just eager to start jumping into the literature, and discussing it in class!

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. However, I don’t usually find myself picking up a book within the Victorian literature genre; this isn’t because I don’t think they’d be good reads, but because I currently have limited knowledge of the time period. As a result, I would like to be able to educate myself more on the Victorian era and on the background of the authors of these works. Along with that, I hope that after this class I’ll be more inclined to challenge myself and read works within a genre that I normally wouldn’t pick out for myself, as well. Overall, I’d love to learn more about what ties all these pieces of literature together. For example, what stylistic choices were made by the authors of the time? Are there recurring themes presented between the different authors? What examples of literary devices were used the most during this period? I find these questions to be really interesting to analyze because they can reveal a lot about what was occurring at the time.

My only real experiences with Victorian Literature are from reading Jane Eyre on my own and A Christmas Carol in an English class. Due to my limited exposure, I don’t have a complete grasp on what the literature truly is. What are some common themes and threads? What are the characteristics that these books possess? I know the time period of which the literature was written in, which leads me to think of science vs. religion and issues of class, but after that I don’t have much knowledge. I am excited to learn about the characteristics of Victorian literature and what it’s made up of.

My past experiences with Victorian Literature are almost non existent although I am happy to say that after this semester that will all change. When first reading the description of this course I was most interested in learning about how language changes over time, specifically how English changed from Old English to Early Modern. In addition, I’m also excited to learn about the different cultural events around which certain literature was written. Even in texts that are not Victorian, I’ve always enjoyed reading works of literature that were written during a significant time in history and seeing how the author incorporated some of the elements that were actually going on in society in the book. I think this course will help me develop a deeper appreciation for Victorian Literature which will ultimately help me become a more well rounded and knowledgable English teacher one day.

The two themes of Victorian literature I would like to explore is how the burgeoning Industrial Revolution was represented by the authors of their time, and in addendum, if these authors addressed the rise of Marxism and decline of working conditions throughout Europe. Moreover, I would be interested to see if Victorian authors focus more on the issue of alienation, and how it manifests in family dynamics, caused by labor commodification or the large scale interpellation of the proletariat into complacency. Finally, and even if there are no overt allusions to Marxist thought in the text, I would like to use these works as a way to practice application of Marxist theory.

Secondly, I am curious to see how Emily Brönte addresses mental health issues in her prose and poetry. And in saying so, her poetry clearly indicates a deep unhappiness. To wit, most mental illness in the era of Queen Victoria was either unclassified or poorly understood, and I would like to know if her oeuvre brought greater attention to an issue that impacted people even if it wasn’t talked about. I also believe Emily Brönte’s works to be a good vehicle for learning about affect theory and how emotion and feeling influence our interpretation of literature. In summary, I would like to use Victorian literature as a vehicle to learn more about Marxist theory in context of the Industrial Revolution and learn how to apply the tool of affect theory in connection to the works of Emily Brönte.

Despite leafing through required readings for classes and admiring the banter between students with a thorough understanding of the “classics”, I have had minimal exposure to many famed pieces. For a student rooted by a love for reading and writing, the scope and depth of my knowledge regarding Victorian literature severely lacks–which is, in part, the inspiration to take this course.

I’m looking forward to finally taking the time to immerse myself in often-discussed works like Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations and looking into the interplay between the literature and the surrounding context of the time period. Better orienting myself in the history and how it influences the works we’re reading will help me create connections between the past and present: how literary themes stand the test of time, where the modern human experience mirrors that of the Victorian era, and what we can learn from how others before us have juggled conflict.

Particular themes/ideas that I’d like to engage with throughout the semester include the role of gender and race, the influence of established worldviews about science and religion on the Victorian literary space, and where the institution of education comes into play both for literary characters and the authors that penned them. Also, I would like to better understand what classifies a piece as one of Victorian literature as opposed to one from another era. How can we distinguish chronologically and what are recurring characteristics of a piece from the Victorian era?

I haven’t read a lot of Victorian literature thus far so there is still much for me to learn about this period in literature, but I do know of a few things involving it which I hope to expand on throughout the semester in addition to what I have not yet discovered.

One piece of Victorian literature I have read is Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. It has been a few years since I last read it, but I remember being captivated by Dickens’ vivid descriptions of scenes throughout the novel that made me feel as though I were there. I realize that Dickens was born after the French Revolution, but the way he describes things throughout the novel is quite interesting to the reader as it seems telling of the time he is writing about and I hope to see this throughout the literature we read. From our Victorian writers, I would like to learn more about the world surrounding them and see how they connected their life and events that have happened around them to their writing.

I’m also interested in learning about the movement evolution from Romanticism to Victorian literature. How do we as readers distinguish a work from being classified as Romantic or Victorian? What sets Victorian literature apart from other movements other than the fact that it was written during Queen Victoria’s reign? In class we have already seen this difficulty in classification with the example of Jane Austen. 

Lastly, I’d like to learn more about the works themselves and discover what connections and disconnections can we, as readers, make between them all in this period of literature?

When adding this course, I had no clue what Victorian Literature was. What I hope to learn by the end of this semester is the [historical] context behind what makes these different pieces, victorian literature. I want to have a better understanding because not only would that help me as a future educator, it will also help me as an individual as it will get me reading into a different line of work, a different genre than what I am used to. From some of the victorinan literature examples I have heard of in our previous class, I seem to like the writing style and thats important when finding an engaging read (especially for prospective students).