19th Century Britain and Its Literature

My academic background is in political studies and theology. The inspiration for this class comes from a university course I once took on 19th Century British Literature and Capitalism although I have chosen to focus on different works of literature and done my own independent research into these topics. I've been teaching highschool level courses on Outschool for several years now and will be bringing in ideas from a variety of academic sources to share with the students.

Students will be asked to write two short reflection pieces during the course of the class as well as to show up for class prepared for discussion.

55 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 2 - 4 hours per week outside of class.

Students be required to have copies of all the novels used in this class.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Countess Kate by Charlotte Yonge
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw


I rely on a wide variety of sources to help me prepare for each class. The following is only a partial bibliography.

Alexandra Valint. (2016). Accepting Adèle in Charlotte Brontë’s <em>Jane Eyre</em>. Dickens Studies Annual, 47, 201–222. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/dickstudannu.47.2016.0201
Bossche, C. R. V. (2005). What Did “Jane Eyre” Do? Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel. Narrative, 13(1), 46–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20107362
Campbell, J. (2016). Bluebeard and the Beast: The Mysterious Realism of <em>Jane Eyre</em>. Marvels & Tales, 30(2), 234–250. https://doi.org/10.13110/marvelstales.30.2.0234
Chapman. (1970). Faith and revolt : studies in the literary influence of the Oxford movement. --. Weidenfeild And Nicolson.
CLARKE, M. M. (2011). CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S “VILLETTE”, MID-VICTORIAN ANTI-CATHOLICISM, AND THE TURN TO SECULARISM. ELH, 78(4), 967–989. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41337561
Cole. (1941). Chartist portraits. Macmillan & co. ltd.
Eagleton. (1975). Myths of power : a Marxist study of the Brontës. Barnes & Noble.
Easson. (1979). Elizabeth Gaskell. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lowe. (2020). Masculinity in the work of Elizabeth Gaskell (1st ed. 2020.). Palgrave Macmillan. 
Jones. (1992). Learning not to be first : the life of Christina Rossetti. St. Martin’s Press.
Lee, J. S.-J. (2008). The (Slave) Narrative of “Jane Eyre.” Victorian Literature and Culture, 36(2), 317–329. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40347190
Lynch, E. M. (1996). Out of Place: The Masquerade of Servitude in Victorian Literature. Pacific Coast Philology, 31(1), 88–106. https://doi.org/10.2307/1316771
Madarász, A. (1983). Victorian Travellers to Nowhere: Socialism and Economic Utopias in the Late XIXth Century. Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 29(2/4), 251–256. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42555432
Murdoch, H. A. (2002). Ghosts in the Mirror: Colonialism and Creole Indeterminacy in Brontë and Sand. College Literature, 29(1), 1–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112619
Parry. (1993). The rise and fall of liberal government in Victorian Britain. Yale University Press.
Patriquin. (2007). Agrarian capitalism and poor relief in England, 1500-1860 : rethinking the origins of the welfare state. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stoneman. (1987). Elizabeth Gaskell. Indiana University Press.
Vejvoda, K. (2003). Idolatry in “Jane Eyre.” Victorian Literature and Culture, 31(1), 241–261. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25058622
Ward, M. C. (2002). The Gospel According to Jane Eyre: The Suttee and the Seraglio. The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 35(1), 14–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/1315316
Young. (2007). The Victorian Eighteenth Century: An Intellectual History. Oxford University Press.