Context: Research Homework (Due Friday 14/01/11)

Oscar Wilde and Victorian England:

Victorian England was a time of huge change in Britain and we are still living with the legacy of those changes today. Industry, fashion, technology and transport are just some of the areas that were to undergo a dramatic transformation. And this is never truer with literature – many novels, poems and plays written then are still popular today.

Oscar Wilde is one example of a writer who produced someone of these famous and much-loved works - plays in particular. Through his plays, writings and life experiences he emerges as a complex and extraordinary figure who challenged accepted social conventions, and still challenges us today to rethink our perceptions of human nature, the soul and imagination itself.

In particular he reacted against:
Industrialisation of the nineteenth century*
Romanticism and the Romantic view of nature*
Aristocracy and the middle classes – the bourgeoisie*
Melodrama*

He was influenced by:
The Aesthetic movement* – influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pater
Shakespeare
Classical theatre

Context of his life:
Victorian London*
The fin de siècle*

Your task is to choose one of the areas with an asterisk next to it and produce a handout of notes. This is a research task to include:

- Key dates of your topic
- Key people involved
- Any key statistics (i.e. population figures)
- Key facts to provide a broad overview
- Include a webpage or other resource to show where you got your information from

JUST PRINTING OUT AND COPYING AND PASTING FROM WIKIPEDIA IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!
You are sixth formers – I want to see your own work, your own words. Or I will ask you to redo it!

Your finished work: emailed to me or posted to the forum by next Friday’s double lesson.

Email me if you have any questions so that “I didn’t understand it” is not an acceptable excuse!