L.008.32310 Subverting the 'Angel in the House'

Lehrende: Lisa Ahrens

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

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Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 40

Voraussetzungen und Empfehlungen:
Introduction to Cultural Studies

Literatur:
Please buy the following novels:
Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth (please read Ruth until the beginning of the semester)
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Additional material will be made available via PAUL.

Kommentar:
This seminar deals with the popular Victorian ideology of the ‘Angel in the House’ and the literary reaction it provoked in its Victorian contemporaries. The ‘Angel in the House’ derives from Coventry Patmore’s eponymous poem (1854) and describes the ideal woman of the Victorian age. It is not only closely linked to gender roles and expectations, but also to questions of identity, representation and (social) power relations. The novels we will discuss in the seminar all deal with the ‘Angel in the House’ in a way which was seen as critical, even provocative, by their Victorian readership.
What we will do in the seminar is to analyse the novels’ subversive potential with regard to the rather fixed and conventional concept of the ‘angel woman’. We will also focus on the social and cultural anxieties of the Victorian age that might be revealed by the representation of (‘fallen’) women at that time. Apart from analysing the novels in detail, there will also be group projects in which all students are expected to participate.

Please buy the following novels:
Ruth (1853) by Elizabeth Gaskell (this text should be read before the beginning of the semester)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) by Thomas Hardy
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by Anne Brontë

Wichtige Hinweise:
- The seminar is open to all students who have successfully passed the Introduction to Cultural Studies
- Students are expected to participate actively and prepare the novels in advance
- Additional material will be made available via PAUL
- Please read Ruth until the beginning of the semester
- In the first session, a course schedule and more information on credit requirements will be provided