Day I Day II Day III Day IV
Day V Day VI Day VII Day VIII

 

Unit III The Victorian City, 1850-1871

NB. Bring Dickens, Olsen and/or Schorske to class on days when we have readings in them


Day One: Hard Times Indeed
What is Dickens¹ view of capitalists? workers? politicians? economists? Are there any good guys in Hard Times?

o Charles Dickens, Hard Times (all)
o In class slides of "Coketown" and Manchester (read Dickens' description, pp. 20-23)

In class: Discuss Web Walks project deadlines, Day Three assignment and Day Four creative writing assignment

In class assignment: Create three new characters for Dickens' Hard Times and provide them with a Dickensian name and a one sentence description.

Identify: Stephen Blackpool, Thomas Gradgrind (Sr), Louisa Gradgrind, Tom Gradgrind, Mrs. Sparsit, Rachael, James Harthouse, Josiah Bounderby, Mr. McChoakumchild, Sissy (Cecelia) Jupe, Mr. Sleary

Questions:
1. What is the significance of naming in Hard Times?
2. Which characters seem real and which seem like caricatures? Is this an engaging drama or a preachy morality play?

Topical Websites:
Dickens Page: http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/index.html
Dickens: http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/dickens/dickensov.html
Dickens map: http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/dickens_london_map.html


Day Two and Three The Age of Isms: Dickens, Liberals and the Labor Question

How do Dickens and his contemporaries attempt to reconcile ideas of progress , property and utility with the conditions of the laboring class?

Due: Write out a short (one page) answer in essay form to the DBQ below

Reading for Day Two:

o DBQ on
Victorian "Isms": Facts, Facts, Facts- Capitalism, Utilitarianism, Liberalism, Communism
o Timeline of British Prime Ministers: Regency to the First World War
o Disraeli Timeline

Reading for Day Three:
o Friedrich Engels, Conditions of the Working Class in England (1844): "Dedication," "Competition"
o Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto (1848)

Identify:
Charles Dickens, Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, liberalism, Robert Peel, Liberal Party, William Gladstone, Tories, Whigs, Conservative Party, Benjamin Disraeli, Friederich Engels, Karl Marx, communism, marxism, proletariat, dialectical materialism

Topical Websites:
J. S. Mill: http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill2.htm
Jeremy Bentham: http://www.la.utexas.edu/labyrinth/ipml/ipml.toc.html

Adam Smith: http://www.bartleby.com/10/
Thomas Malthus: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1798malthus.html
Jonathan Swift: http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
Communist Manifesto: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/cp-usa/manifesto.html
Utilitarianism: http://www.utilitarianism.org

Disraeli on Utilitarianism: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/disraeli-utilitarianfollies.html
Modern History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook18.html
Marx/Engels Archive: http://csf.colorado.edu/mirrors/marxists.org/
British Governments: http://britannia.com/history/h80.html
British Parties: http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/peel/organs.htm


Day Four: Engels, London and the EnglishWorking Class
How does Engels¹ representation of Manchester compare with Dickens¹ representation of Coketown?

Day Four creative writing assignment: Read the Engels or Marcus (below) and reread Dickens description of Coketown on pp. 20-23. Write a description of Coketown in the voice (and from the viewpoint) of one of Dickens' characters (Gradgrind, Bounderby, Sleary, Blackpool, Louisa, young Thomas...). Be sure to describe the architecture, streets, houses, workers, businessmen, churches, jails, schools, factories, clubs and social groups.

o Friedrich Engels, Conditions of the Working Class in England: "The Great Towns"
or
o Steven Marcus, Engels, Manchester and the Working Class, 28-45; 131-144; 168-199

Identify:
Manchester, Disraeli, Engels, proletariat, J.S. Mill, Ruskin, Pugin


Day Five Paris Realism: Courbet and Manet
How do painters observe and represent the same tensions visible in the works of Dickens and Engels, and to what end? Can art provoke revolution?

o Fleming 547-552
o Janson 702-705
o Linda Nochlin, "The Invention of the Avant-Garde" from The Politics of Vision (1989)
o In Class Slides: Paris Realism: Courbet and Manet

Identify:
Realism, Gustav Courbet, Stone Breakers, Funeral at Ornans, Studio of a Painter, Edouard Manet, Olympia, Dejeuner sur l¹Herbe, Portrait of Emile Zola, The Fifer

Day Six: The Birth of Bourgeois Institutions I: Libraries, Operas and Museums in London Paris and Vienna
How are libraries, opera houses and museums the product of the rise of the bourgeoisie? What functions do they serve and how are those functions expressed in their location and design?

o George Perry, "The New Opera House" from the Complete Phantom of the Opera
o Hitchcock, Architecture: 19th and 20th Centuries, ch 8, 191-201; 212-217 (look carefully at the plan and description of the Paris Opera on Watkin, p. 392, and the aerial view on p. 389)
o Roger Cohen, "Vienna Journal; No Dance Partners? Austria Becomes a Wallflower " NYT 3/2/00
o In Class Slides on Bibliotheques Ste. Genevieve, Vienna Opera, Paris Opera

Identify:
Second Empire style, mansard roof, new Louvre, J-L-C Garnier, Paris Opera, "parvenu," Emperor Franz Josef, Ludwig Forster, Van der Null and von Siccardsburg

Topical Websites:

THE HISTORY OF THE VIENNA STATE OPERA: http://www.oebthv.gv.at/stopvop/rstophie.htm
Gustav Mahler: http://www.austria-tourism.at/personen/mahler/index.html
History of Paris Opera: http://phantom.skywalk.com/operahouse/opera_house.html
Paris Opera: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Paris_Opera.html
Charles Garnier: http://www.GreatBuildings.com/architects/Charles_Garnier.html
Images of the Paris Opera: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/NWaters1/images3.htm
Historical Images of Paris Opera: http://www.phantom.simplenet.com/poh.htm


Day Seven: The Second Empire and the Haussmanization of Paris
What was the goal of the city-building of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann? What were the effects for the working class, bourgeoisie, governing elite?

o Benjamin, "Haussmann, or the Barricades," in Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century
o Olsen, 44-53
o Sigfried Giedion, Space Time and Architecture, 739-742; 745-760; 767-773
o In Class Slides on Haussmann and Paris
o maps of principal new streets of Paris between 1850 and 1870

Identify:
Napoleon III, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, La Villette and La Chapelle, "boulevard," Boulevards: Strasbourg, Sebastopol, Sain-Michel, Rue de Rivoli, Malesherbes, Madeleine, Champs-Elysées

Topical Websites:
Britannica on Haussmann: http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,115057+1,00.html
MoMA on Haussmann: http://moma2000.moma.org/modernstarts/Places/frenchlandscape/iledefrance-paris


Day Eight: The Literature of the Second Empire: Baudelaire in the Streets
How does the new Paris affect Baudelaire¹s literature? How is literary "realism" connected to the emergence of the modern metropolis?

o Benjamin, "Baudelaire, or the Streets of Paris," in Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century
o Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen (1867)
o Excerpts from Charles Baudelaire's essay, "The Painter of Modern Life," (1863)
o Marshall Berman, "Baudelaire, Modernism in the Streets" from All That¹s Solid... 131-164

read the intro (131-134) and choose one essay to read from the following:
1. Pastoral and Counter-Pastoral Modernism 2. The Heroism of Modern Life 3. The Family of Eyes 4. The Mire of Macadam


Day Nine: The Birth of the Ringstrasse in Vienna
What was the goal of the city-building of Franz-Josef? What were the effects for the working class, bourgeoisie, monarchy? How do the motives and results compare to those we discussed in Paris?

o Olsen, 69-85
o Hitchcock, Architecture: 19th and 20th Centuries, ch 8 (review)

Identify:
hof, strasse, burg, stadt, vorstadt, tor, kirche, neue, Altstadt, Emperor Franz Josef, Ringstrasse, Ludwig von Forster, Residenzstadt, Kartner Strasse, Votivkirche, Schottentor, Hofburgtheater (Burgtheater), Neue Hofburg, Gottfreid Semper, Karle von Hasenauer, Theophil Hansen, Parliament Building, Rathaus


Day Ten and Eleven:
Engaging the Ring- The Social and Economic Geography of the Kaiserforum and the Ringstrasse
How does the Ringstrasse contribute to the social geography of Vienna? How is the space of mid-centuryVienna used to reinforce old social hierachies and establish new ones?

o Schorske, "The Ringstrasse, Its Critics, and the Birth of Modern Urbanism," 24-46; 46-62
o In Class Slides of the Ringstrasse

Identify:
"Ringstrasse Vienna," "Ringstrassenstil," Otto Wagner, Camillo Sitte, Danube, Rathaus Quarter, University building, Reichsrat, Adelspalais, Mietpalast, Zinzpalast, Wohnpalast, Mietkaserne, Nobelétage, Kaiserstiege, Herrschaftssteige, Scwarzenbergplatz, Textile Quarter

Topical Web Sites:
Interview with Carl Schorske: http://www.austriaculture.net/AKFindeSiecle1617.html
Emperor Franz Josef: http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/bio/f/frnzjosf.html


Day Twelve: Townhouses and Flats: Public and Private in London, Paris and Vienna

o Olsen, 89-113
o Mary Poppins in class
o Mary Poppins Lyrics

Identify:
Cult of domesticity, townhouse, flats, Adelspalais, Mietpalast, Wohnpalast, Mietkaserne, Nobelétage, Kaiserstiege, Herrschaftssteige, basement kitchen, Paterfamilias, dining/sitting room, dressing room, library, drawing room, boudoir, bedrooms, nursery, service stairs

Topical Websites:
1900 House: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/1900house/house/


Day Thirteen: Women in the Modern Liberal Metropolis

o Barbara Bodichon, A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (1854)
o Laura E. Nym Mayhall, Domesticating Emmeline: Representing the Suffragette in Mary Poppins, 1930-1993
o Mary Poppins in class
o Mary Poppins Lyrics

Identify:
The Feminine Mystique (1963), Mary Poppins, Emmeline Pankhurst, National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, Suffragette, P.L. Travers, Richard and Robert Sherman, Mr. and Mrs. Banks, "domestic containment"

Topical Web Sites:
Mary Poppins Lyrics: http://www.animationhistory.com/disneyanimation/MaryPoppins/SisterSuffragette.html

Domesticating Emmeline: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/nwsa_journal/v011/11.2mayhall.html
English Laws Concerning Women: http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/bodichon/brieflaw.html
Modern History Sourcebook- Feminism: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook18.html

Day Fourteen: Orientalism- The ŒOther" in the Modern Metropolis

Please do the web research project below. I will collect it

o Edward Said, Orientalism
o Bahri, Orientalism web page
o Linda Nochlin, "The Imaginary Orient" in The Politics of Vision pp33-59
o In class slides on orientalism: Delacroix, Gericault, Gros, Ingres, etc.

• Imperialism and Orientalism Timeline (TBA)

Web Research Project:

Using the sites below and any others of your choosing, construct your own definition of 19th century "orientalism" and an explanation of its significance for Modern European culture. Choose one primary source image or text as an example and answer these questions:
How did European society depend upon representations of an exotic "other."?
• How do these representations compare to/grow out of ideas about class and gender we have already discussed?
• How is orientalism related to imperialism?

• Do we have "orientalist" ideas today?

Topical Web Sites:
Postcolonial Studies at Emory: http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Orientalism.html
Orientalism: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Art_History/Movements/Orientalism/
Orientalism Confirmed:http://www16.brinkster.com/gokmenim/orientalism/orientalism.htm
Edward Said on Orientalism: http://www.victorianweb.org/post/poldiscourse/pol11.html

Edward Said, "A Devil Theory of Islam": http://past.thenation.com/issue/960812/0812said.htm
Orientalism and the Other:
http://www.smcm.edu/academics/aldiv/art/webcourses/arth100/Expanding/orientalism/OrientHome.htm


Day Fifteen The Social Geography of London, Paris and Vienna
Compare the social geography of the three cities in the mid-nineteenth century. Who lives where and why? How and why do the cities differ in the assignation of status to different parts of the city?

o Olsen, 132-158

Topical Web Sites:
John Snow's London in 1859
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/map1859.html
Charles Booth's 1889 Descriptive map of London Poverty
http://www.umich.edu/~risotto/home.html
Paris / Arrondissements
http://www.frumious.demon.co.uk/paris3.html
Paris Population History: Analysis and Data
http://www.demographia.com/db-paris-history.htm
Vienna around 1900 - the turn of a century
http://art-bin.com/viennae.html
Vienna maps
http://www.worldexecutive.com/cityguides/vienna/maps.html

 

Back to Top

Copyright © 2000. Kirsch Computing/ECFS. All Rights Reserved.
Duplication of any materials on this site without the express written consent of
both Kirsch Computing & ECFS is strictly prohibited

Questions, Comments Problems? Don't Hesitate to contact us: webmaster@kirschnet.com