SENG 3590 - Seminar in British Literature - “Drawing the Victorians: Literature and Illustration”
This course explores the important functions of illustration in Victorian literature and culture from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Jack the Ripper. By reading fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, and journalism, we will identify and analyze the ways that illustrations contributed to the social, cultural, and political purposes of Victorian literature and culture. Questions we might explore: how did illustrations of children, like those in Oliver Twist, contribute to social reforms in education and labor? What role did the illustrated news play in promoting British imperialism during the Crimean War? What relationship exists between Victorian illustrated literature and contemporary graphic novels today?
