Romantics

Romantics

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Introduction and Aims

The Romantics course is concerned with the work of major Romantic poets, critics and novelists who were writing in the period from 1789 to 1830. Throughout the course you will have the opportunity to explore major examples of romantic poetry and prose and, in considering Jane Eyre, to consider some of the ways in which Romantic attitudes continued in English literary culture from 1830 onwards. The aims of the course could, therefore, be described as follows:
(i)
to explore some of the defining characteristics of Romanticism in English literature, with particular emphasis on concepts of the self, the imagination and the unconscious.
(ii)
to consider some of the historical, social, philosophical and political contexts which informed Romantic literature
(iii)
to consider the impact of Romanticism in the development of English literature, with particular emphasis on changes in aesthetic attitudes and theories, and on the development of literary form and literary modes of expression.

Teaching

 Sessions willl be held on Wednesday mornings, 9-11.30 am, in the Lecture Room. The course will be taught mainly in student seminar groups, with general discussion and opportunities for close textual analysis. At various points in the course there will be lecture presentations, either to introduce the work of a particular poet or novelist, or to raise more general issues. The success of the course will, however, depend largely on your reading of each of the texts and your contribution to seminar discussions.

Content and Timetable

The course will deal with the poets and novels chronologically, allowing 2-3 weeks for the exploration of each novel or poet and, where possible, allowing time for lecture presentations. The timetable for the course will, therefore, be as follows:

Weeks Session

1
Lecture: "Romanticism and Philosophy"
(Whole group: Wednesday 5th October)
2 - 3
William Blake:
4 - 7
William Wordsworth:
8 - 9
Coleridge:
10 - 13
Keats:Selected Poems (especially 'The Eve of St Agnes', Odes, 'Isabella', Selected Letters
14 - 18
Shelley: Selected Poems, (including 'Adonias', 'Epipsychidion', 'The Mask of Anarchy')
A Defence of Poetry

[Semester Break - Weeks 16 and 17]
19 - 21
Charlotte Bronte:Jane Eyre.
This part of the course will involve set activites.
22 - 24
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
25 - 27
Byron, Selected Poetry, (especially Don Juan)
28
Plenary/Lecture session At various points in the course additional material will be provided for discussion, including extracts from relevant writers and critics within the period (Tom Paine, Edmund Burke, Rousseau, William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft), and later assessments of Romanticism (J.S. Mill, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot).

Assessment

 The course will involve producing two 2,000 word essays and a final two-hour examination. Course essays will be set on each of the poets or novelists, but there will also be an opportunity to write in response to general questions on the nature, development and contexts of Romantic literature. The final examination will involve a compulsory general question, and two additional questions on individual poets or novelists.

The Romantics: Assignment 1

 Answer one of the following assignments in an essay of no longer than 2,000 words. Please include references and a detailed Bibliography in your essay.
  1. "What he tries to portray is the truth he has perceived, which may be far removed from the common or habitual view of things." Discuss this view of Blake's poetry with reference to the Songs of Innocence and Experience and one other work by Blake.
  2. "Without Contraries there is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence." How appropriate and valid is this statement to understanding Blake's vision?
  3. "There hath passed away a glory from the world." (Ode: Intimations of Immortality). How adequately may Wordsworth be described as a poet of loss?
  4. "The nature which really interests Wordsworth is human nature." To what extent, and in what ways, do you feel this statement applies to Wordsworth's poetry.
  5. How would you respond to the opinion that Coleridge's poems are simply fragmentary dreams?
  6. "The power of Coleridge's narratives lies both in the skill of his narration and also in the forces which this narration articulates." Discuss.
  7. "Keats's poetry is the embodiment of his desire to reconcile the great contradictions of his experience." Discuss, with particular reference to the narrative poems and the odes.
  8. To what extent, and in what ways, would you agree that Keats was "simply an aesthete". Discuss, with particular reference to the narrative poems and the odes.
  9. "Emotional outpourings devoid of thought." To what extent do you feel that this statement adequately expresses the relationship between thought and emotion in Shelley's verse?
  10. "At the heart of Shelley's work is the attempt to describe that which is beyond description: this expresses both the strengths and weaknesses as a poet." Discuss with detailed reference to at least three poems of your choice.
Page last updated 27/03/95