Literature
Great Works: Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White
An all-levels literature course examining Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White through close reading, discussion and historical and critical contexts.
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Upcoming classes
1 class
About this course
The course explores how The Woman in White uses multiple narrators, vivid characters and mystery conventions to examine power, identity and Victorian gender norms. Close reading focuses on themes including the manipulation of female identity, marriage, identity theft and wrongful asylum incarceration, alongside the novel’s contribution to sensation fiction and its treatment of detection and readerly suspense. Teaching combines textual extracts, visual slides, occasional video clips and class discussion. Historical and critical contexts will inform the analysis, with some consideration of adaptations from silent cinema to television.
What you'll learn
- Analyse the novel’s use of multiple narrative perspectives and other narrative methods
- Examine the historical context, themes and concerns of The Woman in White
- Discuss the novel’s place in the development of sensation fiction and mystery narratives
- Consider selected screen adaptations and other afterlives of the novel
Is this course right for you?
The course is open to learners at all levels and does not require prior knowledge of the novel or subject. Participation involves close reading and class discussion, with reading the novel beforehand described as helpful.
- No prior knowledge is required
- Designed for discussion alongside analysis of textual extracts
Before you go
- Learners need to buy or borrow their own copy of The Woman in White; any edition can be used, with Oxford World Classics recommended.
- Digital handouts will be provided before the course and paper copies of extracts will be available in class.
- Reading The Woman in White before the course is recommended as helpful.