Professor Emeritus Chris Ferns is offering another series of public lectures in the Keshen Goodman public library this term. His topic is “Hard Times: Literature and the Industrial Revolution.” All the lectures are free and take place on Fridays 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. at 330 Lacewood Drive.
More about the series:
Today, the word “revolution” conjures up images of the massive political upheavals of the past — the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution — radical, violent changes that transformed society out of all recognition. Yet during the nineteenth century Britain underwent a process of transformation no less profound: the Industrial Revolution. By the end of the period it had emerged as the world’s first industrial Superpower, in control of nearly a quarter of the globe — but at an enormous cost in terms of human suffering. These lectures explore the ways in which writers of the period responded to the literally unprecedented changes taking place.
Schedule:
September 23. The Calm Before the Storm: Britain on the Eve of Revolution
September 30. Early Responses: Jane Austen and Walter Scott
October 7. Great Expectations? Dickens and the Industrial Revolution
October 14. The Ghosts on the Moors: Wuthering Heights and Social Change
October 21. Maintaining Order: Middlemarch and Political Reform
October 28. Fears for the Future: H.G.Wells and the Shape of Things to Come
All are welcome.
c-ferns-public-library-lecture-series-2016 poster [pdf]
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