Victorian Women

History 498C: Victorian Women
Prof. Jeffrey Auerbach
Fall 2002
Tuesdays, 4:20-6:50 p.m.
Sierra Hall 288

Description: This course is intended to provide an introduction to the history of women in Victorian England. Topics include the ideology of separate spheres, women’s work, marriage and motherhood, sexuality, the empire, education, and political activity. We will discuss famous figures including Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, and Jack the Ripper, as well as a host of lesser-known men and women who had an impact on the lives of women in nineteenth-century Britain. We will also explore the interaction of class and gender as we try to uncover cultural assumptions about Victorian women (both the Victorians' and our own).

Objectives:

To gain insight into how women have lived their lives in previous times
To consider the various opportunities available and limitations placed upon women
To explore some of the historical and theoretical writings on the history women
To examine analytically the interrelationship between gender and class

Readings:

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton
Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850
Margaret Homans, Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture
Joan Perkin, Victorian Women
Barbara Caine, Victorian Feminists
Margaret MacMillan, Women of the Raj

Requirements:

Regular class attendance and thoughtful, well-informed participation in discussion (10%)
A 2-3 page, 5-paragraph essay on Family Foprtunes, due Sept. 24 (15%)
A 2-3 page, 5-paragraph essay on Women of the Raj, due Nov. 19 (15%)
A 5-page paper on Mary Barton and Jane Eyre, due Oct. 29 (30%)
A take-home final, due Dec. 10 before noon (30%)

Course Policies:

All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the specified due date. Late papers will be marked down one whole grade (e.g., from an A to an B) per day
More than two absences for any reason will adversely affect the student's grade, as will repeated lateness. Please turn off all pagers and cell phones during class
Any student caught plagiarizing (copying or borrowing someone else’s work, whether on paper or from the internet, without crediting them) will automatically receive a failing grade for the course and will be referred to the Office of Academic Affairs for disciplinary action
The instructor reserves the right to modify the course schedule or assignments as needed

Class Meetings, Topics, and Readings:


August 27	Introduction: Stereotypes of Victorian Women
September 3	Religion and Middle-Class Domestic Ideology Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 1-192
September 10	Industrialization and Economic Enterprise Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 193-315
September 17	Public and Private Spheres Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 317-454 John Ruskin, “Of Queens' Gardens,” in Sesame and Lilies (1865)
September 24	Marriage, Divorce, and the Law Perkin, Victorian Women, pp. 51-131 Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, "A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women" (1854) [handout]
October 1	The Governess I Bronte, Jane Eyre (pp. 1-164; through chapter 16) Perkin, Victorian Women, pp. 6-50
October 8	The Governess Bronte, Jane Eyre (pp. 165-end)
October 15	Working-Class Women Gaskell, Mary Barton (entire) Perkin, Victorian Women pp. 169-201
October 22	Queen Victoria Homans, Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture , pp. xix-72, 100-156, 229-244
October 29	Women in Art The Ideal of the Victorian Woman Courtship and Marriage Wayward and Fallen Women Middle-Class Women at Work Elderly, Poor, and Working-Class Women
November 5	Prostitution and Jack the Ripper Perkin, Victorian Women, pp. 219-34 Judith Walkowitz, "Jack the Ripper," City of Dreadful Delight (1992) [handout]
November 12	Women and Empire MacMillan, Women of the Raj
November 19	Independent Women and The “New Woman” Perkin, Victorian Women, pp. 132-85
November 26	Victorian Feminism and the Origins of the Women's Movement Caine, Victorian Feminists (entire)
December 3	Conclusion: World War One and the End of Victorianism? Perkin, Victorian Women, pp. 235-48