Description

This course considers the East End in the Victorian social imagination and its so-called regeneration in the 20th century. We will read a number of texts-novels and shilling shockers, social scientific texts, government reports, sermons, newspaper articles, and charitable treatises-that helped to construct, consolidate, or challenge Victorian understandings of this area. Through walking tours and site visits, you will explore the geographic and economic divides of 19th-century London and reflect on the structural factors underlying poverty and inequality.