Instructor: Randall Engle
Course Time: MWF 12:00-1:07
General Education: Literature & Writing Intensive
Term: Fall 2013

DESCRIPTION:

The World of Downton Abbey: Revolution, Rebellion, and Re-creation. The PBS series “Downton Abbey” has become an overnight sensation in both Britain and America. The years of the series - 1914 to the early 1920s – were a period with some of the most sweeping, dramatic changes known to modern history in the areas of women’s rights, crumbling socio-economic barriers, radical changes in fashion, and a world forever changed by war. This course will explore not only how the world changed in Edwardian Britain, but also how America was shaped by it. Using Mary Doria Russell’s novel Dreamers of the Day as a starting point, we’ll explore the politics, social systems, monarchy and church of England of that time—in addition, of course, to the foods and the fashion. In all, we’ll explore how the end of one genteel and incredibly wealthy era - the 1910s - ushered in the shocking behavior of another - the Roaring 20s.

Evaluation will be class participation, readings, and an individual project that will be offered as a class presentation. Hopefully, many class sessions will be held at our own “Downton Abbey,” Meadowbrook Hall—with plenty of tea and scones