EN4374 The Queen's English: Language, Literature, and Politics in the Victorian Period

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Module description

The Victorians are infamous for seeking to standardise the English language, either by imposing fixed rules on its grammar or by rejecting innovation and variation in favour of a supposedly pure form of English. But how fair is this reputation for linguistic intolerance? At the same time as Victorian linguists were trying to police English, diverse forms of the language were proliferating around the globe, and literature played a key part in both trends. Literary writers promoted and criticised Victorian theories of language; they wrote in and about a wide range of regional and national dialects and idioms; and they developed idiosyncratic writing styles that subverted linguistic conventions. This module's goal is to study the global diversity of Victorian literature written in English, and to show that the close reading of literary language can help us to understand the political debates about nationalism, imperialism, race, and class that shaped Victorian theorisations of English.

Intended learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a comprehensive critical knowledge of the reciprocal relations between literature and linguistics in the Victorian period.
• Understand the global political debates (about imperialism, nationalism, race, and class) that informed writing in and about the English language in the nineteenth century.
• Evaluate different critical and historical interpretations of Victorian linguistics and literature.
• Engage in the close critical analysis of literary and linguistic texts.
• Develop arguments based on textual evidence and on contextual and theoretical research.
• Communicate those arguments orally (to be demonstrated in spoken contributions to class discussions) and in writing (to be assessed through written assessments).