A Course Syllabus for "Play, Games, and Sport in the Victorian Novel"

Glen Downey, Ph. D., Department of English, University of British Columbia

Course Outline

English 394/02. The Victorian Novel, 1837-1901: Play, Games, and Sport in the Victorian Novel

Dr. Glen R. Downey, University of British Columbia [gdowney@interchange.ubc.ca]
Office Hours and Location: Tues. and Thurs. 12:00-2:30
Buchanan Tower, Room 327

Course Description

This course will acquaint students with the complex roles that games play in nineteenth-century literature. In exploring Victorian attitudes towards games, students will be encouraged to examine how these attitudes are expressed in six works of fiction. The instructor will promote group discussions which raise questions about the impact of games as literary and cultural metaphors during the nineteenth century. For example, to what extent do games in Victorian literature structure and symbolize contemporary debates involving issues of gender, class, or race? How do members of marginalized groups fair as players in the games they contest, and how does their sometimes forced participation affect their status as players? Students will also be encouraged to investigate who makes the rules of games that characters are expected to play, and to what extent these rules are tampered with, ignored, or transgressed. Finally, the class will come to terms with larger issues concerning the nature of play and games in a nineteenth-century context.