Course Description: This course will look specifically at how new nineteenth-century ideas about how the mind works were represented in literary, scientific works, and popular works of the period and, conversely, how literary representations influenced the developing field of “mental science.” The goal of the course, however, is not simply to study the history of psychology or trace the theme of psychology in literature, but also to interrogate the ways in which we, as a post-Freudian generation, think about ourselves and our minds--to explore the literary, historical, and cultural roots of contemporary psychological assumptions. Readings include recent historical and theoretical articles that will provide a context for the reading and discussion of nineteenth-century literary, scientific, and popular or pseudo-scientific texts, including literary methods for representing consciousness. The role of literary texts and non-scientific works in nineteenth-century psychology points to two large concerns that will underlie this course: the struggle between scientific and non-scientific discourses and the role of gender in the definition of the new field of psychology.

Some specific issues to be discussed will include: “abnormal” states of mind (hysteria, problems of memory, spectral vision, motiveless malignity, torments of guilt, terrors of conscience, suicide, addiction, etc.), “normal” states of mind (reasoning, emotions, dreams, sexuality), diagnosis and treatment (alienists, mesmerism, phrenology, asylums), legal implications of insanity (incarceration, criminal defense, marriage and divorce), and specifically literary concerns (new genres such as dramatic monologue and detective and sensation novels, psychology and realism, representation of consciousness, psychological criticism, etc.). The course will focus on British texts from the mid to late nineteenth century.

Required texts:
Taylor & Shuttleworth, Embodied Selves (Oxford, 1998)
C. Brontë, Villette (Penguin, 2004)
Tennyson, Maud (available on e-reserve or on several websites, including: <http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/T/TennysonAlfred/verse/maud/maud.html>
R. Browning, My Last Duchess & Other Poems (Dover, 1993)
M.E. Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (Oxford, 1998)
Wilkie Collins, Armadale (Viking-Penguin, 1995)
George Du Maurier, Trilby (Oxford, 1998)
Henry James, Turn of the Screw (Dover, 1991)
R.L. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover)
Doyle, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories (Dover, 1992)
Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray (Dover, 1993)

Note: All readings should be completed on the day scheduled for discussion.

Reserve list: In addition to the required texts listed above, I have put a number of useful books on Reserve at the Watson Library Reserve Desk (see attached list). We will be doing e-reserve readings of portions of some of these books, but many of you will want to consult the entire book, as well as checking out the other books, for writing research papers, as well as for general reference.

Selected articles and chapters that are required reading are available on e-reserve. To get the e-reserve materials, go to http://eres.lib.ku.edu/courseindex.asp. You will need to enter the course page password: engl790 (no space).

Papers: Two papers will be required for the course.
Short paper: Each student will write a short paper (4-6 pages) on one of the literary texts assigned for the class to be due on the day the text is discussed and distributed to the class in advance via the class distribution list. Your short paper should consist of a reading of the assigned literary text in the context of any of the historical or secondary readings also assigned for that day.
Research paper: You will also do one longer paper (15-20 pages) that should involve both close reading and research. The research paper may focus on one of the literary texts from the assigned readings or some other related text or topic of the students’ devising. Topics should be approved in advance. A one-paragraph abstract will be e-mailed to the class distribution list before the final class period.

Miscellaneous assignments: There may also be other short writing assignments, either in-class or prepared in advance.

Participation, preparation, and attendance: Since this is a graduate course, I presume that all students will attend regularly, be prepared for discussion by having completed readings and any writing assigned, and will participate actively in class discussion. In order to be clear, however, I do want to point out that missing more than two class periods is grounds for failure, unless there are unusual circumstances that you discuss with me.

Policy on Student Academic Creations

Since one of the aims of this course is to teach students to write for specific audiences, ungraded student-authored work may be shared with other class members during the semester in which you are enrolled in the class. Please do not submit materials on sensitive subjects that you would not want your classmates to see or read, unless you inform the instructor in advance that you do not want your work shared with others.

Other uses of student-authored work are subject to the University’s Policy on Intellectual Property and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. If your instructor desires to use your work outside of this class (e.g. as a sample for another class or future classes), you will be asked to fill out and sign a written form authorizing such use.

Tentative Schedule

T 1/24

Course introduction
William Wordsworth, Selections from Preface to Lyrical Ballads (handout)
“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (handout)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (handout)
From Biographia Literaria, Ch.13 (handout)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Magnetic Lady” (handout)
Embodied Selves:
Introduction to “The Unconscious Mind and the Workings of Memory” (pp. 67-72)
“Associationism and Physiological Psychology” (pp. 73-101)
Peter Logan, Nerves and Narratives: Introduction and Chapter 1 (e-reserve)

T 1/31

Albert Tennyson, “St. Simon Stylites,” “Mariana,” Maud: A Monodrama (e-reserve)
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess,” “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Fra Lippo Lippi,” “Johannes Agricola in Meditation”
Embodied Selves:
Introduction to “Insanity and Nervous Disorders” (pp. 227-230)
Monomania, Moral Insanity, and Moral Responsibility” (pp. 251-284)
Ekbert Faas, Retreat into the Mind, Chapters 1-2 (pp.
19-46) (e-reserve)

T 2/7

Charlotte Brontë, Villette
Embodied Selves:
Introduction to “Reading the Mind” (pp. 3-7)
“Physiognomy” (pp. 8-24)
“Phrenology” (pp. 25-48)
“Dreams” ( pp. 102-122)
“Memory” (pp. 141-162)

T 2/14

Villette
Embodied Selves
Introduction to “The Sexual Body” (pp. 165-168)
“Defining Womanhood” (pp. 169-183)
“Sex in Mind and Education” (pp. 373-388)
Gallagher & Laqueur, The Making of the Modern Body (on e-reserve):
Laqueur, “Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology”
Poovey, “Scenes of an Indelicate Character”

T 2/21

M.E. Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret
Embodied Selves:
“The Uterine Economy” (pp. 184-208)
“Masculinity and the Control of Sexuality” (pp. 209-224)
Dorrit Cohn, Transparent Minds (e-reserve)

T 2/28

Lady Audley’s Secret
Embodied Selves:
Introduction to “Insanity and Nervous Disorders” (pp.
225-30)
“Inherited Legacies: Idiocy and Criminality” (pp. 322-
334)

T 3/7

Wilkie Collins, Armadale
Embodied Selves:
Introduction to “Heredity, Degeneration, and Modern
Life” (pp. 287-292)
“Concepts of Descent and Degeneration” (pp. 303-321)
“Race and Hybridity” (pp. 352-371)

T 3/14

Armadale
Embodied Selves: “Moral Management and the Rise of
the Psychiatrist” (pp. 231-250)
Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: “The Birth of the Asylum” (e-reserve)
Asylum narratives (handouts)

T 3/21

No Class–Spring Break

T 3/28

Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Embodied Selves: “Double Consciousness” (pp. 123-140)

T 4/4

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

T 4/11

Arthur Conan Doyle, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The
Adventure of the Speckled Band,” “The Final Problem,” “The Adventure of the Empty
House”

T 4/18

William Morris, “Concerning Geffray Teste Noire,” “The Judgment of God,” “The Wind,”
“November” (e-reserve)
Algernon Charles Swinburne, “The Leper,” “Anactoria,” “Dolores,” Félise” (e-reserve)

T 4/25

George du Maurier, Trilby
Browning, “Mesmerism” (e-reserve)
Embodied Selves: “Mesmerism” (pp. 49-64)
Mesmerized: Introduction, Chapter One (e-reserve)

T 5/2

The Turn of the Screw
William James, Principles of Psychology full-text

T 5/9

No Class–Individual Conferences Scheduled

T 5/16

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