The Victorian Era

L’objectif de ce cours est d’offrir aux étudiants des repères chronologiques, ainsi qu’un apercu global sur l’époque victorienne en Grande-Bretagne. L’histoire sociale et politique de cette époque de changement sera étudiée, ainsi que l’histoire des idées et celle des arts.

Les TD développeront les capacités d’analyse et d’expression écrite des étudiants à travers un entrainement aux exercices de commentaire et de dissertation.

• Part 1 – A time of social and political upheavals (Week 1 à 6)

This course will start with a panorama of Victorian Britain, focusing on its social history and showing how the Victorians grappled with a changing world.

Students will study the political developments in the Victorian era with a particular focus on the changing role of the monarchy, the decline of the aristocracy and their political influence, the growth of democracy and the tensions this brought, and the emergence of the Labour movement.

• Part 2 – The ideology of progress (Week 7 à 12).

The second part of the course will examine how the ideology of progress combined religious convictions and a ‘Whig’ view of history to understand and guide industrialisation and scientific discovery. This rationale was translated in middle-class moral values, as well as in mainstream literary and artistic productions. It was contested however by dissident voices who sought to revive an imaginary Medieval past.

Session 1 :

Étudiants régime général et spécial : contrôle terminal écrit 3H (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Session 2 (« rattrapage ») :

Étudiants régime général et régime spécial: examen oral préparation 30 mn/15 mn passage

Organisation des enseignements

1h CM/ 1h30 TD par semaine

Ouvrages au programme :

• BURY, Laurent. Civilisation britannique au XIX e siècle. Hachette Supérieur, 2001.
• SCHAMA, Simon. A History of Britain. Series 3, Episode 13 – ‘Victoria and Her Sisters’ & Episode 14 – ‘The Empire of Good Intentions’. BBC, 2002.

Bibliographie complémentaire :

• BAILEY Peter, Popular Culture and Performance in the Victorian City.Cambridge University Press, 1998
• BRIGGS Asa, The Age of Improvement.New York, Longman, 1999
  • Victorian Cities.London, Penguin, 1990
• CHARLOT Monica & MARX, Roland, La Société victorienne.Paris, Armand Colin, 1990
• CLARK, G. Kitson, The Making of Victorian England.London, Methuen and Co, 1992
• DAY Gary (Ed.), Varieties of Victorianism: the Uses of a Past.New York, Saint Martin Press, 1998
• MARSDEN Gordon (Ed.), Victorian Values.London, Longman, 1998
• MATTHEW, Colin, The Nineteenth Century: The British Isles, 1815-1901, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
• McCORD, Norman, British History, 1815-1906. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995.