ASSIGNMENT 1

EXPLORING THE DICKENSIAN WORLD

Welcome back bloggers!! It's now time to do some internet based research on your assigned topic.

For this first assignment, you will have fun learning more about our author and his world. Remember that you need to cite all your sources, and while you can start with the following websites, feel free to explore others. You will notice how some are more reliable than others, so that's where your judgement comes into play.

http://www.victorianweb.org/
http://wikipedia.org/
http://www.answers.com/

So, here are the main guidelines for your research:

Group A – Charles Dickens and his works.

- A brief introduction about the author ( birth, family history, etc)

- Works (mention a few)
- Events in his life while writing GE

- How GE was initially published.

Group B – Genres

- Provide a brief glimpse of the history of the novel form.
- Where does the English novel come from? When does it first start appearing? How did it develop?
- Who was reading at the time? What kinds of fiction were popularly read?

- What is a Bildungsroman? Provide a few contemporary examples (i.e. movies)

Group C – The Gentleman

- Find a few dictionary definitions of Gentlemen

- How do you think the word is used in popular culture? What do we mean these days when we say someone is a “Gentleman”?

- How was a gentleman defined in Victorian England? What various definitions were offered?

- What are the main characteristics associated with Gentlemen in Victorian England?

Group D – Class in Victorian Society.

- Provide a general definition of class

- Where did this idea come from?

- How was class determined in Victorian society? How were the classes demarcated?

- What were the markers of class in Victorian society?

- What was the general economic condition in the Victorian era? How did the industrial revolution effect socio-economic classes?

Group E – Gender in Victorian Society.

- How would you describe the status of women in Victorian society? Please provide examples

- What sorts of conventions around gender existed in Victorian times?

- How were gender roles effected by class or socio-economic status?

Group F – Crime and Punishment in the Victorian Age

- What can you tell us about the justice system in the Victorian society? How were criminals treated?

- What were the conditions in jails like in the Victorian era?

Your assignments should be posted by Saturday night latest please.

Ms Expectations :)