Hebdomadal topics (week 10)

Topic 1: Victorian courtships

The stylistic differences in the courtships of Middlemarch and The Importance of Being Earnest illustrate the rhetorical as well as the ideological differences between high Victorian and late Victorian literature. By comparing a scene of courtship from Middlemarch to a scene of courtship from Earnest, concisely articulate how these two authors approach a shared socio-cultural phenomenon differently. Then suggest how their different stylistic approaches suggest different ideological approaches: how do these authors different styles show us how they see their worlds differently?

Topic 2: Prism's Progress

Late in Earnest we discover that Miss Prism is the author of a "three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality" (1737). The play is otherwise laced with comments about literature and literary criticism (e.g. p. 1703: "The truth is rarely pure and simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature would be a complete impossibility!") -- there's plenty of sarcasm here, of course, but what is Wilde saying about literature? Why is he saying it?

Topic 3: Irish Modernisms

Wilde and Yeats paint pictures of different worlds -- consider merely the tonal difference between Earnest and "The Second Coming." To what features of nineteenth-century culture and literature are they responding? How do their visions of the coming century differ? What is the significance of this difference?