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Victorian Literature Discussion Questions

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  • Question for 1-24
    What does the word <i>Victorian</i> mean to you? Does it call to mind any particular images, ideas, or values? At the outset of the course, it would be interesting to take stock of our ideas about the Victorian period and the people we call the Victorians. At the end of the semester, we'll compare these ideas with what we've discovered through reading and discussion.
    28 Topics
    37 Posts
    Last post by Leslie Manz View the latest post
    Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:41 pm
  • Question for 1-29
    Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, the protagonist of Carlyle's fictional autobiography <i>Sartor Resartus,</i> is a young man trying to figure out how to live in the modern world. This effort forces him to confront some basic philosophical questions. Try to identify one of these questions in your own words. How do you think Teufelsdröckh answers it?
    17 Topics
    35 Posts
    Last post by AmandaAllen View the latest post
    Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:40 pm
  • Question for 1-31
    Based on the excerpt from <i>Past and Present,</i> what's your impression of Carlyle's social and political views?
    21 Topics
    36 Posts
    Last post by TammySeidberg View the latest post
    Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:04 am
  • Question for 2-5
    You may have noticed that Mill mentions Carlyle favorably in his <i>Autobiography.</i> Yet Mill's social and political outlook is quite different from Carlyle's. How, in particular, does Mill's conception of liberty seem to differ from Carlyle's?
    17 Topics
    31 Posts
    Last post by DanielleBlanch View the latest post
    Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:02 am
  • Question for 2-7
    For Thursday, help annotate <a href="http://wiki.geneseo.edu/x/FwCW">Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"</a> on the Geneseo wiki. (The link will take you right there. You'll need to log in before you can edit the page.)
    0 Topics
    0 Posts
    No posts
     
  • Question for 2-12
    The subtitle of Amy Levy's <i>Reuben Sachs</i> is "A Sketch." What does this subtitle <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/61/73/C0577300.html">connote</a>? What kind of expectations do you think it's meant to establish in the reader? How does the actual narrative of <i>Reuben Sachs</i> meet or fail to meet these expectations?
    6 Topics
    28 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:06 am
  • Question for 2-14
    In her <a href="http://schacht.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?p=332#332">answer to Tuesday's question</a>, Jennifer pointed out that Levy's "sketch" amounted to "a characterization of society and especially Victorian Jews." In various ways, a number of you made this point. Levy has given us a quickly drawn picture of Jewish life in London at the end of the nineteenth century. Broadly speaking, how does Levy seem to see the subject of this picture? What general impression does the picture make on you?
    8 Topics
    32 Posts
    Last post by DanielleBlanch View the latest post
    Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:32 pm
  • Question for 2-19
    Our discussion last time focused on <i>Reuben Sachs</i> as a "sketch" of Victorian Jewish life. But it is also a character sketch. What is your impression of the two main characters, Reuben and Judith, and of the relationship between them?
    8 Topics
    27 Posts
    Last post by DanWang View the latest post
    Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:13 pm
  • Question for 2-26
    After last Thursday's activity, you deserve a break from forum posting. So no question for tomorrow. On the other hand, if you have some thoughts about the reading for tomorrow and want to share them, don't hestitate...
    1 Topics
    5 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:36 am
  • Question for 2-28
    On Tuesday, we noted that Victorians responded in a variety of ways to the problem of reconciling new scientific discoveries and attitudes with traditional religious beliefs. How do the poems "Dover Beach" and "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" appear to deal with this problem? (As a follow-up to Tuesday's discussion, you might find it useful to have a look at <a href="http://schacht.freeforums.org/science-t255.html">this Coffeehouse thread</a>, initiated by an excellent question from Dan.)
    10 Topics
    20 Posts
    Last post by PaulSchacht View the latest post
    Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:22 am
  • Question for 3-4
    I've <a href="http://wiki.geneseo.edu/x/CoAIAQ">put Lyric 55 of <i>In Memoriam</i> on the wiki </a> for you to annotate. Please follow the instructions there. Contact me if you have any questions.
    0 Topics
    0 Posts
    No posts
     
  • Question for 3-6
    In discussing <i>In Memoriam,</i> our emphasis so far has been on Tennyson's ideas about life, death, faith, science, etc. But in his time he was valued as much for the beauty of his language as for his ideas. Select a few lines from <i>In Memoriam</i> that strike you as especially beautiful or powerful. Try to identify what Tennyson is doing <i>as a poet</i> in these lines to make them affect you as they do.
    25 Topics
    33 Posts
    Last post by jenniferestleford View the latest post
    Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:27 pm
  • Question for 3-11
    At the <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/Alice_in_Wonderland_1903">Internet Archive</a> (one of the absolutely best places on the Web), you can watch the first-ever film version of <i>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.</i> Of course, it's silent. But a silent <i>Alice</i>? Why? The 1903 <i>Alice</i> has also been <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlEAk7EDX7w">posted on YouTube</a>, with music added, and it had gotten 201, 771 views when I went to it today. (But really, look at it at the Internet Archive, too. Then spend a little time browsing the Archive. There's so much there.) That's a lot of views for a silent movie that's in pretty bad shape. So again, the question is: What's the appeal of a silent <i>Alice</i>? Wouldn't you have thought that the words were crucial to this story? Share your thoughts.
    12 Topics
    32 Posts
    Last post by TAMARA DAVIS View the latest post
    Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:48 pm
  • Question for 3-13
    As we discussed on Tuesday, Alice must learn how to play by the particular, and sometimes peculiar, rules of Wonderland and of the world behind the looking-glass. Do the rules of these dreamworlds show us anything interesting or valuable about the rules of the "real" world?
    6 Topics
    27 Posts
    Last post by AmandaAllen View the latest post
    Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:05 am
  • Question for 3-25
    At the beginning of <i>Great Expectations,</i>
    Pip is about the same age as Carroll's Alice. How does Pip's childhood experience compare to hers?
    7 Topics
    26 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:53 am
  • Question for 3-27
    How is social class a factor in the development of Pip's identity in the "first stage" of <i>Great Expectations</i> (Chapters 1-19)?
    6 Topics
    31 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:58 am
  • Question for 4-1
    "All other swindlers upon earth," declares Pip at the beginning of Chapter 28, "are nothing to the self-swindlers..." What does he mean by this, and how is the idea of <i>swindling</i> in general important to Pip's story?
    2 Topics
    28 Posts
    Last post by DanWang View the latest post
    Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:08 am
  • Take a Break
    No question for 4-3. See you in class!
    0 Topics
    0 Posts
    No posts
     
  • Question for 4-8
    Thinking of Browning's "Fra Lippo Lippi" as a kind of autobiography, how does the autobiographical method of the poem differ from that of <i>Great Expectations</i>? In other words, how do the poem and the novel differ in the way they present the protagonist's identity? By the way, don't forget to bring both <i>Great Expectations</i> and the <i>Norton Anthology</i> to class with you tomorrow.
    2 Topics
    24 Posts
    Last post by jenniferestleford View the latest post
    Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:12 pm
  • Question for 4-10
    The cover of your Norton Anthology features a detail from William Holman Hunt's painting <i>The Lady of Shalott.</i> To accompany Tennyson's poem, the Anthology also prints an 1857 illustration by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Christina's brother). Many other nineteenth-century artists were moved to represent this poem visually. What is it about the poem itself, in your view, that might explain the many attempts to visualize it?
    9 Topics
    28 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:52 am
  • Question for 4-15
    What ideas do Pater's "Conclusion" to <i>The Renaissance</i> and Rossetti's "The Sonnet" have in common?
    2 Topics
    24 Posts
    Last post by Melissa Alessandra View the latest post
    Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:52 pm
  • Question for 4-17
    Like D.G. Rossetti's poetry, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins often concerns itself with the relationship between the realm of sensuous (i.e., physical) experience and the realm of spiritual meaning. Compare Rossetti's treatment of that relationship to the treatment it receives in poems such as "Pied Beauty," "The Windhover," and "As Kingfishers Catch Fire."
    2 Topics
    24 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:01 am
  • Question for 4-24
    Based on your reading of <i>Kim</i> so far (and hopefully you're about halfway in), how would you compare Kim with Pip?
    3 Topics
    24 Posts
    Last post by Sarah Walters View the latest post
    Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:26 am
  • Question for 4-28
    We've discussed <i>Kim</i> as a boy's adventure story that is simultaneously a story about defining Great Britain's identity as a colonial power. How do these two elements come together in Kipling's novel? In other words, how and where in the novel do masculinity and empire intersect?
    4 Topics
    14 Posts
    Last post by jenconroy View the latest post
    Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:21 am
  • Question for 5-1
    Following up on Tuesday's question about masculinity and empire: Consider <i>Kim</i> as a boy's version of the <i>Alice</i> books. What aspects of Kipling's novel does this view bring into focus?
    2 Topics
    23 Posts
    Last post by RichPulvino View the latest post
    Thu May 01, 2008 8:38 am
  • Question for 5-7
    For January 24, I asked this: "What does the word <i>Victorian</i> mean to you? Does it call to mind any particular images, ideas, or values?" Looking back on the semester's work, has the meaning of the word <i>Victorian</i> changed for you? If so, how? If not, how has the semester's work confirmed what you already thought about the Victorians?
    3 Topics
    27 Posts
    Last post by AmandaAllen View the latest post
    Tue May 06, 2008 10:52 am

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