ENG 4934 - Summer 2026 - Kennedy

Web-like networks that send a letter cheaply and quickly, across town or around the globe. Speedy, impersonal vehicles that increase mobility but can be dangerous. A new interest in counting and tracking population. A sudden expansion in print publication capacity and demand. Remarkable effects in new visual media. Virtual money. Competitive social networks built on trading little photographs. Mind-boggling computing power. Spy gadgetry. The networked body. Distance learning and virtual community. Instantaneous communication across vast distances. Alternative energy.

Sound familiar? These are just a few examples of the rapid-fire changes in 19th-century British culture that emerged in concert with the innovative networks and media reshaping the Victorian landscape around what was “novel” (new and exciting).

We will study how Victorian literature engages with this culture of connectivity and virtuality via new systems and technologies like the railway, the census, the postal system, the telegraph, advertising, printing and publishing, photography, centralized banking, calculating engines, medical instruments, the 1851 Exhibition and Crystal Palace, and electrification.

Readings include short stories, nonfiction essays, and novellas. This online asynchronous course will guide students through the research and revision process. Students will produce short video presentations on their research and workshop a series of drafts to prepare a capstone project.