COURSE DESCRIPTION King Charles III can trace his lineage back to Cerdic, founder of the Kingdom of Wessex in the 6th century, more certainly to Ecgbert, grandfather of Alfred the Great. The political history of Great Britain is intimately connected to its monarchy and its monarchs include some of the most celebrated figures of their times. Who does not instantly recognize Henry VIII, Charles II or Queen Victoria? William III is the hero of ardent Ulster Unionists. George III is the bogeyman of the American Revolution. Even today, government is carried on and justice administered in the name of the monarch, and members of the Armed Forces swear allegiance to the reigning monarch and his or her heirs and successors. This course looks at both individual rulers and the institution of monarchy as it evolved from the warrior chieftains of Cerdic’s time to the public service monarchy personified by Queen Elizabeth II, via figures such as Alfred, King John, Edward I and Mary Queen of Scots.
COURSE DESCRIPTION The 18th century gothic movement was a reaction to Enlightenment rationality and the violence and terror of the French Revolution. Its conventions included aristocratic villains, persecuted maidens, the supernatural and the theme of imprisonment. A transgressive sub-genre of the novel, it evolved in the Victorian age to reflect concerns about religion, race, gender, imperialism and cultural degeneration. In this course, we’ll trace its development from Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto,” to Stoker’s presentation of fin-de-siècle anxiety in “Dracula,” covering Radcliffe’s influential novel of ‘sublimity’, “A Sicilian Romance,” Shelley’s groundbreaking “Frankenstein,” and Brontë’s domestic re-imagining of gothic romance in “Jane Eyre.” Why do we remain fascinated with the forbidden? Enjoy being terrified? Is terror the same as horror and why did Romantic poets Coleridge, Byron and Shelley view the former as such a rich source of inspiration? Why does the Gothic genre refuse to die? The 18th- and 19th-Century Gothic Novel: Prohibition and Transgression
Participants will receive a suggested reading list for this course prior to the program.
COURSE EXCURSION Enrolled participants will experience a full day at Windsor Castle.
TUTOR Ann Lyon has been passionate about history as long as she can remember, though she spent 25 years lecturing in law, particularly British constitutional law. In recent years, she has taught courses in British constitutional history. She is the author of a number of books and articles on constitutional issues, particularly the monarchy and several historical novels published under a pseudonym.
Participants will receive a suggested reading list for this course prior to the program.
COURSE EXCURSION Enrolled participants will experience a full day at Strawberry Hill House.
TUTOR Dr. Emma Plaskitt is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford, where she wrote her doctoral thesis on 18th century fiction. She has taught English literature 1640–1901 for various Oxford colleges as well as Oxford University’s Continuing Education summer programmes. Having worked for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where she was responsible for writing many articles on 18th- and 19th-century women writers, she now focuses on teaching for the SCIO Study Abroad Programme based at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford and for Stanford University. Though a specialist in the literature of the 18th century, her research interests include the Victorian novel — particularly the gothic novel and novel of sensation.
Fifteen Centuries of British Monarchy
4 ∙ MSU ALUMNI
ODYSSEY TO OXFORD ∙ 5
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