The Death of the Sun: Energy, Evolution & Ecology in Victorian Fiction

ENGL 255-301

Barri J. Gold

MW 3:30-5pm

Coalbrookdale by Night is an 1801 oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg. The painting depicts the Madeley Wood Furnaces.

The Death of the Sun: Energy, Evolution & Ecology in Victorian Fiction
Two Victorian ideas--energy and evolution--form the basis of modern ecology. But among Victorians, these concepts fueled and were shaped by the hopes and fears, anxieties and aspirations of a nation coping with change. Fears regarding the death of the sun competed with deeply held beliefs about conservation as well as with the hope for unlimited progress. This course explores the ways Victorian literature wrestled with and helped shape the way we understand ourselves and the natural world. Authors read include Tennyson, Wells, Dickens, Hopkins, Gaskell, as well as contemporary ecocritics such as Lawrence Buell, Kate Soper, Heidi Scott and Timothy Morton.

This course fulfills Arts & Humanities Approaches to Environmental Inquiry requirement.

Spring 2022