The Later British Romantic Writers

Course Goals

In this course, we will read canonical poetry, popular poetry, and novels of the Romantic period. Usually the canonical poems -- written by P.B. Shelley, Keats, and Byron -- is taken to be "higher," which is to say better in quality and value, than either popular poetry or novels, both of which can be read as a form of entertainment, merely in order to escape. But if popular poetry is "lower" because sentimental, isn't high Romantic poetry also sentimental? In what ways is it less sentimental than the popular, and is it "better"? That is, what higher goals does reducing sentimentality serve? Moreover, since novels are derived from the French "romaunt", aren't they fundamentally "romantic"? Clara Reeve and others try to distinguish between romance (romantic tale) and novel: are they successful? Do romantic poems contain romantic narratives -- that is, in them, is someone falling in love with someone else? In short, in this class, we will perform close readings and careful formal analyses in order to ask ourselves, in what way does canonical poetry differ from and in what ways does it resemble popular poetry and popular novels?

Required Texts

The Longman Anthology of British Literature, 2nd edition, Vol. 2A

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- crucial: editor Susan Wolfson

---, Lodore

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Selected Writings

Work Required

Usually, there will be a quiz given every Tuesday and an assignment due every Thursday. For quizzes, students are expected to know: the names of the works they have read for that date, the authors, (roughly) the date of publication, major characters, and plot. (The "plot" of many high Romantic poems may be events in the poet's consciousness.) The questions students will answer in assignments will be posted on Blackboard usually one week in advance of their due date (see syllabus; there is one exception). Answers will not be turned in to the professor but will rather be posted to the class email discussion list. While not required to read every email posted by my fellow students, students should read as many as possible. In response to each assignment question, posted on the class email list, students should write one or two paragraphs: a grade of C will be given if the student simply expresses his or her thoughts; B if the student quotes from the text discussed; A if the student quotes from the text and responds to another student. Students will write two short 3- to 5-page, typed, double-space papers for the class on topics that will be assigned two weeks before the papers are due. There will be a midterm and a final in which students will be asked to identify 3 to 5 passages (author, title, date), and then to perform a close reading of the passage, indicating in these short essays those relevant ideas, concepts, or events from the work as a whole.

Grades

 

Attendance Policy

More than 3 absences will significantly decrease your grade; more than six absences will result in being dropped from the course.

Schedule

January, Week 1

T 1/7 Introduction

Assignment 1, due in one week: Read through the Literary and Cultural terms listed at the back of your Longman volume (pp. 1013-1032). As you are reading Shelley's poetry, find at least three formal poetic devices in one of the poems, listing the name of the term, and then copying the lines in the poem that make use of that device; then write a few sentences about how that formal device affects the poem's overal meaning. (Grades: C if you find one device in a poem, B if you find two in the same poem, A if you find three in the same poem.)

Quiz #1: I will ask about the politics of the period, the Romantic view of literature / authors, and how novels fit into that view.

R 1/9 Longman Introduction to the Romantic Period: "Romantics and Their Contemporaries," L 1-29.

1819: Percy Bysshe Shelley, “England in 1819,” L 761

Quiz #1

Week 2

T 1/14 Percy Bysshe Shelley, L 752-775, 800-09

Due: Assignment 1

R 1/16: 1816 -- Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude” (HO)

Week 3: The Tragedy and Comedy of Byron

Guest speaker: G. Todd Davis

T 1/21: George Gord, Lord Byron, Introduction & Manfred, L 600-54

R 1/23: Byron, "Don Juan," Dedication and Canto 1, L 667-717

Assignment 2: carefully describe and evaluate the last two class sessions.

Week 4

T 1/28 Byron, Letters L 747-51

Clara Reeve, "The Progress of Romance" (HO)

"Popular Prose and the Problems of Authorship" L 917-106

Due: Assignment 2

Assignment 3 -- to be posted

R 1/30: 1818: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 3-68 (Preface and Vol. 1)

Companion Readings to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 199-242

Due: Assignment 3

Assignment 4 -- to be posted

Paper topics for Paper 1 -- to handed out and posted

February, Week 5

T 2/4: Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 69-120 (Vol. 2)

Companion Readings to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 243-270

R 2/6: Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 121-185 (vol. 3)

Companion Readings to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 271-99

Due: Assignment 4

Week 6

T 2/11: Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 186-96 (1831 edition) plus HO

Companion Readings to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein -- pp. 300-37

R 2/13: 1812: Anna Letitia Barbauld, “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven” L 37-46

Due: Paper 1

Online Assignment 5 -- to be posted

Week 7

T 2/18: Exchange Day – No Class

R 2/20: The Bijou <http://www.muohio.edu/anthologies/bijou>

Due: Online Assignment 5

Assignment 6 -- to be posted

Week 8

T 2/25: Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known as L.E.L. -- pp. 11-86, 291-328

R 2/27: L.E.L. -- pp. 87-159

Due: Assignment 6

Week 9

T 3/4: L.E.L. -- pp. 160-208, 267-70, 328-51

R 3/6: MIDTERM EXAM

Paper 2 Topics -- to be handed out and posted

Week 10 Spring Break

Week 11

T 3/18: 1835: Mary Shelley, Lodore -- pp. 47-148

R 3/20: Shelley, Lodore -- pp. 148-251

Due: Assignment 7 -- in-class writing

Week 12

T 3/25: Shelley, Lodore -- pp. 252-346

R 3/27: Shelley, Lodore -- pp. 347-448

Due: Paper 2

Assignment 8 -- to be posted

April, Week 13

T 4/1: Felicia Hemans, L 810-40

R 4/3: 1819: John Keats, The Odes of 1819, L 877-886

Due: Assignment 8

Assignment 9 -- to be posted

Week 14

T 4/8: Keats L 852-65

R 4/10: Keats, Letters, L 900-915

Due: Assignment 9

Assignment 10 -- to be posted

Week 15

T 4/15: Keats, “Eve of St. Agnes” and "La Belle Dame" L 865-76

R 4/17: Keats, “The Fall of Hyperion" and other poems, L 887-900

Due: Assignment 10

Week 16

4/22 Class Evaluations, Class Party

4/24 Review for Final Exam

Final Exam, Monday, April 28, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.