English 4240, Nineteenth Century British Literature: Romantic, Spring 2007, MWF 10:00 - 10:50 am, ED 47

Dr. Eric W. Nye Office Hours: MWF 2-3 and by appt., Hoyt Hall 310, 766-3244

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The Infant Shakespeare attended by Nature and the Passions.  George Romney (pinxit.), B. Smith (sculpit.).

from Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery (1789-1802).

 

Syllabus

Mon., 8 Jan.:  Introduction to the course. Romantic aesthetics: the mirror and the lamp. Classic or Romantic? The search for a usable past. A Time-Line of English Poetry, 658-2001. 

Wed., 10 Jan.: Music, the sister arts. The epistemological revolution: Hume to Kant.  A Pack of Useful Lies about the Eighteenth Century
Duncan Wu, ed., Romanticism: an Anthology, 3rd edn. (2006), "Introduction" and "Timeline," pp. xxx-lxxiii..

Fri., 12 Jan.: Empiricism and idealism. A Copernican revolution, a second reformation. Generic transformations: the sonnet revival, the ballad revival, the hymn. The poetry of sensibility: Gray, Macpherson, Collins, Bowles, Goldsmith, Cowper. (stress elegy, locodescriptive, and vatic poetry)

Wed., 17 Jan.: Marshall Brown, "Romanticism and Enlightenment," in The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, Stuart Curran, ed. (1993), pp. 25-47.
William Cowper and Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Romanticism, pp. 16-22 and 31-51.  (stress blank verse and heroic couplets)
Politics and poetry in the late 18th century. Political caricature. Wollstonecraft.

Fri., 19 Jan.: Robert Burns, handout.  (stress ballads and mock epic)
P. M. S. Dawson, "Poetry in an age of Revolution," Companion, pp. 48-73.
Burns, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, Romanticism, pp. 151-54 and 260-84.

Mon., 22 Jan.:  William Blake,, Romanticism, pp. 169-78.  (stress hymns and narrative poetry)
Paper 1 assigned, due Wed., 31 Jan..

Wed., 24 Jan.: Blake, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Romanticism, pp. 179-206.

Fri., 26 Jan.: Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Romanticism, pp. 206-21.
Peter Thorslev, "German Romantic Idealism," Companion, pp. 74-94.

Mon., 29 Jan.: Blake, The First Book of Urizen, Romanticism, pp. 223-39.

Wed., 31 Jan.: Blake, recap, Romanticism, pp. 240-45.
Paper 1 due.

Fri., 2 Feb.: Blake, conclude.

Mon., 5 Feb.: Video, Sir Kenneth Clark, "Constable and Blake," English Romantic Artists (1994?).

Wed., 7 Feb.: In-class exercise.

Fri., 9 Feb.: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (1798), Romanticism, pp. 327-410 and 483-521.

Mon., 12 Feb.: Wordsworth and Coleridge,"Preface" to Lyrical Ballads (1802), Romanticism, pp. 522-27.

Wed., 14 Feb.:  Lyrical Ballads.
Homage to the Mother of the Muses.

Fri., 16 Feb.:  Lyrical Ballads.

Mon., 19 Feb.:  Wordsworth's blank verse, Romanticism, pp. 411-48, 473-83, 510-22.
Journals due.

Wed., 21 Feb.: Wordsworth, The Prelude, versions and excerpts, Romanticism, pp. 448-73 (Two-Part, 1798-99), 543-46 (Five-Book, 1804), 549-70 (Thirteen-Book, 1804-06), 579-80 (Fourteen-Book, 1850).

Fri., 23 Feb.: Wordsworth, remaining lyrics and notes, Romanticism, pp. 527-42, 546-48, 570-78, 580-83..

The Death of Chatterton.  Henry Wallis (1856).  Oil on canvas, 24 1/2 x 36 3/4 inches.

The Tate Gallery, London

Mon., 26 Feb.:  Coleridge, Romanticism, pp. 592-639 and 663-77.  (stress conversation poems)

Wed., 28 Feb.:  Coleridge.

Fri., 2 March:  Coleridge.

Mon., 5 March:  Coleridge, Romanticism, pp. 639-63 and 677-713. (stress criticism and poems of the supernatural)
Midterm Exam, Part 1 (take home essays) due.

Wed., 7 March: Midterm Exam, Part 2 (in class).
Paper 2 assigned.

Fri., 9 March: No class.  Read Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) over spring break!

Mon., 19 March:  Austen, Pride and Prejudice, vol. I.

Wed., 21 March: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, vol. II.

Fri., 23 March: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, vol. III.
Paper 2 due.

Mon., 26 March: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, recap.

Wed., 28 March: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, recap. 

Fri., 30 March: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, recap.

Mon., 2 April: Dorothy Wordsworth, Romanticism, pp. 584-91.  Review essays by Brown, Dawson, and Thorslev in Companion, pp. 48-73.
Paper 3 assigned.

Wed., 4 April: Charles Lamb, Romanticism, pp. 735-52, and William Hazlitt, Romanticism, pp. 753-91.
Marilyn Butler, "Culture's Medium: the Role of the Review," Companion, pp. 120-47.
Journals due.

Mon., 9 April: John Keats, Romanticism, pp. 1332-1433.

Wed., 11 April: Sonnets by Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley.  Hip-Hop Daffodils. Click here for rapper text and see original in Romanticism, p. 546.

Fri., 13 April: Homage to Mnemosyne II

Mon., 16 April:  Keats letters and relationship with Wordsworth.

Wed., 18 April: Endymion (1818) and "Eve of St. Agnes."
Paper 3/term paper proposal due.

Fri., 20 April: The six odes, "Psyche" (1819), "Nightingale" (1819), "Grecian Urn" (1819), "Melancholy" (1819), "Indolence" (1819), "Autumn" (1819).

Mon., 23 April: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Romanticism, pp. 1043-1222.  Emphasis on Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude (1816) and "Mont Blanc" (1817).

Wed., 25 April: "Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats" (1821).

Fri., 27 April: A Defence of Poetry (1821).
Journals due.

Sat., 28 April: Optional review session, Hoyt Hall, Mathison Library 4-5 pm.  Use NW entrance.

Remember that the Final Exam will be in our usual classroom: Mon., 30 April, 10:15-12:15.  Bring Blue Books.  Term papers will be due at that time.

Last updated Sunday, 13 October 2013

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