Teaching 19th-Century Literature Beyond the Secularisation Thesis: Introduction to the Special Forum

Abstract

The widescale revision of the secularisation thesis continues apace across the humanities and more specifically in 19th-century studies—a field that until recently often assumed the ‘subtraction’ story of secularisation in which, as Charles Taylor explains, modernity leads to the inevitable demise of religion. But how does this revised outlook inform the teaching of 19th-century literature? In other words, if we now question the notion that the 19th century sees the inexorable decline of faith, how does that questioning change the way we teach Romantic and/or Victorian literature? The following special forum addresses such questions.