English Victorian Literature: Critical Assessments

In Victorian Literature we engage with the astounding variety of poetic forms, themes, missions and performances appearing in Britain during the year 1930-1910. Victorian poetry reflects, records and wrestles with all the problems and successes of the era: a rapidly growing and increasingly problematic empire; restless, dissatisfied, and potentially revolutionary groups of citizens at home; immense capitalist wealth alongside shocking poverty; revolutionary travel and communication technologies thrilling to advocates and distressing to those yearning for the good old days; competing political and social philosophers butting heads in both the halls of Parliament and the taverns of Manchester; simultaneous excitement about and fear over feminism; religious upheaval, use and purpose of language, education and art. Therefore not only engage with the poetry itself, but also with its historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts in the present book.