This course explores two bold fictional modes that developed in nineteenth-century England: Sensation novels of the 1860s and New Woman fiction of the 1880s and l890s. Both were notorious for portraying strong-minded, independent heroines, who flouted Victorian ideals of proper womanhood by claiming sexual and/or intellectual agency. The issues to be explored include the representation in fiction of female sexuality, woman's mental powers, and male homosocial bonds; the deployment of social and literary conventions; the use of innovative narrative techniques; the cultural fears, frustrations, and desires to which a transgressive subject matter gave expression. The readings include novels and short stories, as well as primary historical sources (conduct manuals, medical treatises, periodical essays), and recent critical and theoretical essays written from a variety of perspectives (biographical, historical, formal, psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist and gender theory). The fictional texts include Mary E. Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret, Wilkie Collins's Armadale, Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm, Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and selected short fiction by fin-de-siecle women writers. Requirements: periodic writing exercises, one short paper, two seminar presentations, and a 12- to 15-page term paper. Major Seminar. Open only to English majors and to qualified non-majors, with a preference to concentrators in Women's and Gender Studies; permission of English Department chair required; see information above. Enrollment limited to 15. (1800-1900 or Criticism)