This course explores the seedy thrills and myriad innovations of the period’s entertainment industry. We will study immersive attractions, including sex tourism, “slumming,” and sideshows, as well as the technological advent of photography, musical recording, and film. Students will independently investigate the Victorian Popular Culture digital archive to analyze emergent forms of print and visual media, like chapbooks, fast guides, and penny dreadfuls. Other topics include the rise of significant literary genres (sensation, realism, and muckraking journalism) alongside performance genres like burlesque, panto, and drag. We conclude with a look at the legacy of nineteenth-century entertainment in some of the most successful videogame and film franchises of today. This course emphasizes an intersectional approach to history and literature that considers the socio-cultural effects of gender, sexuality, race, and class on popular entertainment.
Readings
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015), Ubisoft
- Carmilla (1872), J. Sheridan Le Fanu
- Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994), Peter Ackroyd
- Frankenstein (1818), Mary Shelley
- Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Northanger Abbey (1817), Jane Austen
- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Robert Louis Stevenson
**Subject to change**
Assessment
- In-person and take-home assignments
- Small research project
- Final exam
**Subject to change**
Prerequisites
Level 2 or above or 6.0 units of ENGL
