I don't know much about Victorian literature, but when I have been exposed to it I have always found it very interesting. I think I will enjoy it even more with illustrations, and having the opportunity to see how words and images work together to create a larger meaning. I am a little nervous because I feel as though a lot of my peers are already familiar with some of the texts we are readings, while they are all very new to me! The most familiar text was "A Christmas Carol", but only because I've watched Scrooged (starring Bill Murray) 100 times.

It was great to meet my fellow seminar peers this morning during our first class. I am excited to study the content of this course and utilize Dr. Kooistra's extensive knowledge of the Victorian era. I have a bit of background knowledge of the period's texts and history from my 19th-century literature class, which inspired me to choose this seminar. I was surprised to learn that Victorian picture books were actually intended for an adult audience instead of a child audience. I just took Children's Literature with Naomi Hamer and I'm excited to examine picture books from a different lens.

After the introductory class today, I am quite interested in focusing on artistic representations of Victorian literature. I have taken a few courses that look at the intersection between literature and visual media, including Studies in Visual Culture and Studies in Word and Image, in addition to the small portions other courses that focused on art, such as Romanticism.

It was so nice being back with my fellow English peers. It was nice to hear what everyone was excited about for this coming semester. I think what intrugued me the most in our first zoom meeting was goingover hwat the semster is going to be like. With so much uncertainty, it was nice to have some concrete information accompanied by a solid plan for the semester going forward - with many ,thanks to Professor Janzen for the organization.