106-431 Bohemia and the Nineteenth Century Novel

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in English.

The figure of the Bohemian appears consistently in nineteenth-century writing. It was also a model many writers performed in their own daily lives. This subject examines both representations of Bohemia and actual Bohemian subcultures across a range of nineteenth-century urban contexts, focusing particularly on the relationship between imperial capitals (London and Paris) and developing colonial capitals (Melbourne and Sydney). The subject will explore the manner in which Bohemia is used to articulate a range of political, social and aesthetic concerns played out in different ways in Australia and Europe. These concerns include the impact of commodity-capitalism on literary production, the rise of democratic and revolutionary political movements, the city as a site of crime and social disintegration, the gender politics of literary production, the development of a mass-market readership, colonial anxieties over the accumulation of cultural capital, the Bohemianism of fin-de-sicle aesthetes, and the rise of popular genres dedicated to the sensational qualities of Bohemian living.

• acquire skills in research, including the competent use of library, and other (including online) information sources, and the ability to define areas of inquiry and methods of research;

• acquire skills in critical thinking and analysis, including the ability to question accepted wisdom, shape and strengthen persuasive judgments and arguments, and develop critical self-awareness;

• acquire skills in theoretical thinking through a productive engagement with relevant methodologies and paradigms in literary studies and the broader humanities;

• acquire skills in creative thinking through essay writing and tutorial discussion, through the innovative conceptualising of problems and an appreciation of the role of creativity in critical analysis;

• develop social, ethical and cultural understanding;

• develop intelligent and effective communication of knowledge and ideas:

• develop skills in time management and planning related to the successful organisation of workloads, disciplined self-direction and the ability to meet deadlines.

Written work totalling 5000 words comprising a 5000 word essay worth 100% of the final grade (due at the end of semester).

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• G Gissing, New Grub Street. Penguin Classics 1976.
• F Hume, The Mystery of the Hansom Cab. Text Publishing or any other available edition.
• K Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. New York: International Publishers 1998.
• W Lane, The Workingman's Paradise. photocopy available from the English Department.
• R Praed, The Soul of Countess Adrian. photocopy available from the English Department.
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