Imaginary courses

I'm scheduled to teach this semester's slate of courses again in the fall (which, if nothing else, simplifies book orders no end), but this has prompted me to imagine some courses that might be fun to teach.  Some of them would require more resources than I have on hand. 

When Good Literature Goes Bad.  A course about shifting literary tastes, using nineteenth-century fiction or poetry as examples. E.g., Robert Southey, Henry Crabb Robinson, the Spasmodic poets, Edward Bulwer-Lytton.  Could also focus on works from a classic author's oeuvre that have now been shoved aside (e.g., Scott's narrative poetry instead of his fiction).  Would incorporate contemporary criticism or private responses (letters, journals), imitations, and parodies.

Or, as an alternative:

The Nineteenth-Century Canon, Circa 1901.  As the Victorian era drew to a close, what did nineteenth-century literature look like? What was a "classic" or a "minor classic"? A course emphasizing Romantic poetry, for example, might include W. S. Landor, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Moore, and Walter Scott's poetry; a course on the Victorian novel might feature Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Anne Manning, Mrs. Humphry Ward, and so forth. Would include discussions of early anthologies and collected editions, contemporary criticism, etc.

Historical Novels before the "Historical Novel."  Fictions of the past before Waverley.  Classical models (the Greek romance); seventeenth-century antecedents (e.g., The Princesse de Cleves); eighteenth-century examples (e.g., Longsword, Earl of Salisbury); Scott's acknowledged influences (e.g., Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, Jane Porter's The Scottish Chiefs).  (Unlike the first two examples, which would require me to cobble together a lot of online readings from not-always terrific sources, this would be fairly easy to do.)

Dramatic Monologue.  The Brownings, Lord Tennyson, the Rossettis, Swinburne, Amy Levy, Augusta Webster, Charlotte Mew, etc.; twentieth- and twenty-first century examples (Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Peters, Richard Howard, etc.).

Catholics, Jews, and the Nineteenth-Century Novel.  No, not representations of Catholics and Jews in nineteenth-century fiction, but Catholic and Jewish novelists.  To include examples of novels addressed to a Protestant readership and to co-religionists.  On the Catholic side, Newman and Wiseman, but also Cecilia Mary Caddell, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Julia Kavanagh, Frances Taylor, Mrs. Wilfrid Ward; on the Jewish side, Grace Aguilar, Benjamin Farjeon, Amy Levy, the Moss sisters, Israel Zangwill.  (This one would be extremely difficult to do, as some of these novelists aren't easily accessible online, let alone in current print editions.)

The Ring and the Book.  Just The Ring and the Book, ma'am, just The Ring and the Book.  (Students really need a fair amount of experience reading Browning before tackling this book, I think.)

Novel X: Sequels, Prequels, Updates.  Any major nineteenth-century novel and its afterlife.  Good candidates: A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre (I've done this), Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, Dracula.  

Or:

Biofiction.  Any major nineteenth-century author, fictionalized (in the nineteenth century and after).  Good candidates: Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Dickens, Byron, Wilde.

Comments

[Anabelle]

I'm reading Rienzi right now, and I don't think I'd want my students to have to suffer through a B-L, at the risk of scaring them off Victorian novels altogether. I find it really, really bad. Your idea for a class is kind of funny though, if for any other reason than being able to have them read bad stuff! :p

[Rebeccablogs.blogspot.com]

I'd like to take them all, but especially the last two!

[Zora]

Those sound like GOOD classes. I thought you were going to try for humor.

I'm on a mailing lists for Victorianists that has a constant influx of students wanting help with MA theses. They are quite fond of "list" themes:

Elephants in Victorian fiction
Umbrellas in Victorian fiction
Smallpox in Victorian fiction

Just list every novel in which an elephant, umbrella, or case of smallpox appears and presto! you've got a paper.

Wouldn't it be fun to teach a course like this? A course on teapots would be easy, I should think. It would be like playing "Where's Waldo?" Here's Dickens; where's the teapot?

[Miriam]

There are times when I'm serious :)

[CJColucci]

No reason the classes can't be both funny and good. Maybe the Little Professor could work up syllabi and post "lectures." I'd certainly take them.