Grill Anna-Maria

PS 2: “That
Great Chaos of Humanity”: Narratives of Urban Modernity in Late Victorian
Britain

“I determined to go to London, and lose myself in that
great chaos of humanity.” (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret)

During the nineteenth century, Great Britain
experienced a process of urbanisation of an unprecedented extent, changing both
its landscape and the mindset of its people forever. This seminar will explore
late nineteenth-century literary, journalistic, visual, and sociological representations
of these new urban centres and, by doing so, their various narratives of the
new experience of urban modernity. For this purpose, we will be investigating
the portrayal of the late nineteenth-century city via the example of the
English capital, London, in selected works of Late Victorian Urban Gothic, Realist
Literature, Slum Writing, and Detective Literature set either completely or
partly in the English metropolis, such as works (and excerpts of works) by
Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells, George Gissing, Oscar Wilde,
Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, and L.T. Meade. We will place these literary
texts in their wider historical and cultural context by examining the dominant
discourses shaping society at the time as well as their expression in
contemporary journalism, visual art, sociological and (pseudo-)scientific
literature, and advertisements. Key topics for class discussion will be the
conflicting ways in which these texts engage with the daily reality of the late
nineteenth-century city, with the established Victorian ideologies and social
structures, the reality of the fin de siècle atmosphere and late
nineteenth-century urban life and transport, and, last but not least, the
unprecedented experience of urban modernity torn between progress and anxious
nostalgia.

This seminar will explore late nineteenth-century literary, journalistic, visual and (pseudo)-scientific representations of the metropolitan monster haunting the heart of the English nation, London, at the fin de siècle. For this purpose, we will be investigating the portrayal of this multifaceted figure in selected works of Late Victorian Urban Gothic, Scientific Romance and Detective Literature set either completely or partly in the English metropolis, such as works by Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and L.T. Meade. We will place these literary texts in their wider historical and cultural context by examining the dominant discourses shaping society at the time as well as their expression in contemporary journalism, visual art, (pseudo)-scientific literature and advertisements. Key topics for class discussion will be the conflicting ways in which these texts engage with the established Victorian ideologies and social structures, with the reality of the fin de siècle atmosphere and late nineteenth-century urban life, and with contemporary attitudes to femininity/masculinity and gender relations against the backdrop of budding consumerism.