Wiley Victorian Literature: An Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies)

Victorian Literature is a comprehensive and fully annotated anthology with a flexible design that allows teachers and students to pursue traditional or innovative lines of inquiry—from the canon to its extensions and its contexts.Represents the period's major writers of prose, poetry, drama, and more, including Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, Carlyle, Ruskin, the Rossettis, Wilde, Eliot, and the BrontësPromotes an ideologically and culturally varied view of Victorian society with the inclusion of women, working-class, colonial, and gay and lesbian writersIncorporates recent scholarship with 5 contextual sections and innovative sub-sections on topics like environmentalism and animal rights; mass literacy and mass media; sex and sexuality;  melodrama and comedy; the Irish question; ruling India and the Indian Mutiny and innovations in print cultureEmphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the field with a focus on social, cultural, artistic, and historical factorsIncludes a fully annotated companion website for teachers and students offering expanded context sections, additional readings from key writers, appendices, and an extensive bibliography Review “A fully annotated anthology of Victorian literature is a massive undertaking, and the editors are to be commended for this near-heroic level of endeavor and the inclusiveness of their selections.”—Florence Boos, University of Iowa “In Victorian Literature Shea and Whitla have created a unique anthology that continues as an online resource, extending the contents in deep and subtle ways. The reader finds a rich account of Victorian culture, from issues of industrialisation, gender, and colonial ideology to the art and architecture of the period, including the Victorian art form, the photograph. The comprehensive gathering of poems includes women's poetry and working-class poetry.”—Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck, University of London From the Inside Flap Victorian Literature is a comprehensive and fully annotated anthology with a flexible design that allows teachers and students to pursue traditional or innovative lines of inquiry. Included in this collection are 105 of the period’s prose, poetry, drama, and nonfiction writers, including such canonical authors as Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, Carlyle, Ruskin, the Rossettis, Wilde, Eliot, and the Brontës. Fifty authors are women.In addition to selections from the major authors of the period, the volume promotes an ideologically and culturally varied view of Victorian society by including women, working-class, colonial, gay and lesbian writers, and dialect poets. These selections offer readers the opportunity to study new voices beyond the canon. There are 5 contextual sections covering the Condition of England; Gender, Women, and Sexuality; Literature and the Arts; Religion and Science; and Empire. These contexts are interdisciplinary in nature and examine the social, cultural, artistic, and historical factors at play during the period. They also contain unexpected sub-sections on topics of recent scholarship, such as environmentalism and animal rights; mass literacy and mass media; sex and sexuality; Victorian childhood; melodrama and comedy; the Irish question; ruling India and the Indian Mutiny; innovations in print culture; and the science of race.The coverage is further expanded with  an extensive website for teachers and students that presents additional contextual readings (each with new sub-sections, such as Orientalism, ecclesiastical parties, literature and new technologies, law and the sexual subject), visual materials, audio recordings, maps, chronologies, and thematic indexes.  These are  fully  integrated with the text and include detailed annotations about names, places, events, allusions, and leading ideas. From the canon to its extensions to its contexts, this website is a fresh and exciting introduction to the diversity of the Victorian age. From the Back Cover