106-262 Victorian Sexualities, Science and the Supernatural

Note

Available as 106-362 at 3rd-year level.

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Subject Description

This subject provides an introduction to a variety of ways in which Victorian writers used tales of the supernatural, sensation and science fiction to address their anxieties about a range of issues - such as sexual transgression, madness, race, disease and degeneration. Students will be introduced to a range of texts which use ghosts, telepathy, time-travel, parapsychology, hallucinations, ecstatic states, paranormal experiences and seances to explore the limits of experience and find a transcendental resolution to the conflicts and tensions confronting them in the material world.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• C Dickens, Bleak House.
• W Collins, The Woman in White.
• M Cox & R A Gilbert, Victorian Ghost Stories.
• G Eliot, The Lifted Veil.
• R L Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories.
• H James, The Turn of the Screw.
• E A Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher.
• O Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
• H G Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau.