ENGL 23047 - Paper Trail in Victorian Lit (pre-1900)

Course Credit: 1
Before we went “paperless,” paper was the substance of our letters, our laws, and our literature. The Victorian period in particular saw a sudden outpouring of paper (and of paper litter), as innovations in paper production coincided with the expansion of print media, advertising, and a nationalized postal service. These ubiquitous bits of paper make their way into Victorian literature as well-from the torn clue to the well-timed love note. In this course, we will explore paper as a material, a medium, and a metaphor. We will examine the literary function of paper objects: the letters that ricochet through the long narrative poem; the crucial piece of paperwork that drives plots of blackmail, detection, and inheritance; and the multiplying documents of late-Victorian Gothic fiction. The paper object will provide us with an entry point into broader questions about social ties, authorship, law, the archive, and communication technology. Toward the close of the semester, we will also consider the lingering place of paper in the digital world. Readings will include: Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s verse-novel Aurora Leigh, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Steven Moffat’s Sherlock paired with Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories; and contemporary works of literature and art such as Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette. [Before 1900] [AH]