Dr. Harriet Kramer Linkin
117 English Building
Spring 1999 Office Hours:
Mon Wed 1:30-2:30; Tu Th 2:30-4:00 by appointment
646-2240; hlinkin@nmsu.eduEnglish 422/522--The Romantic Century
Spring 1999 Syllabus
Course Description and Objectives: Romanticism was a literary age marked by a series of revolutions: the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft's "revolution in female manners," and revolutionary efforts to redefine self, identity, consciousness, and visionary experience. The latest revolution in Romanticism has been an explosive rediscovery of more Romantic literature: ten years this course would have focused on six of the greatest male poets ever to write in the English language (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats), but now we can also read the work of great women poets (Barbauld, Smith, Robinson, Tighe, Hemans, Landon), and look beyond poetry to consider how prose writers voice the Romantic. Because the parameters of Romanticism have changed, critics have renamed the period a Romantic Century that includes several literary movements, such as the pre-Romanticism of eighteenth century poets of sensibility, Gothic fiction, the canonical writings of the male poets, the rediscovered poetry of Romantic women writers, the political poetry and prose of British abolitionists, the early Victorian poetesses and more. We will look at a reasonable sampling of some of these movements as we read and discuss wonderful literature and challenging ideas.
Required Texts:
- Mellor, Anne and Richard Matlak, eds. British Literature 1780-1830. Harcourt, 1996.
- Wu, Duncan. Romantic Women Poets: An Anthology. Blackwell, 1997.
- Austen, Jane. Persuasion. 1818; Signet, 1964.
- Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818; Signet, 1963.
Course Assignments and Policies: Graded assignments for the course will consist of two short papers (each worth 30%) and one long paper (worth 40%). Fuller details will follow for the assignments listed here. Please note: I treat deadlines seriously (late papers lose one full grade per class meeting) and find intellectual dishonesty unacceptable (plagiarism means failure). Because the heart of this course is discussion, I expect (and note) timely attendance. Missing more than two classes can affect your final grade adversely; missing three weeks of class can result in failure. Please inform me of any assistance you need to fulfill these requirements or of any circumstances that will affect your ability to give this class your best academic effort (if you have or believe you have a disability, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at Garcia Annex for appropriate accommodations). You are responsible for acquiring additional handouts or hearing class announcements on course policies.
Class Schedule for Readings and Discussion:
W Jan 13 Introductions
M Jan 18 Martin Luther King Holiday
W Jan 20 Blake, Songs of Innocence (1789)
M Jan 25 Cowper, "The Negro's Complaint," "Pity for Poor Africans" (1788), More, "Slavery: A Poem" (1788), Yearsley, "A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade" (1788), Equiano, The Interesting Narrative (1789), Opie, The Negro Boy's Tale [Wu] (1802)
W Jan 27 Blake, The Book of Thel (1789-91), Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) [esp. Intro, Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 8], Barbauld, "To a Lady, with Some Painted Flowers" (1773), "The Rights of Woman" (1793)
M Feb 1 Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), More, Cheap Repository: The Story of Sinful Sally. Told by Herself [Wu] (1796)
W Feb 3 Robinson, Sappho and Phaon [Wu] (1796)
M Feb 8 Robinson, Sappho and Phaon [Wu] (1796)
W Feb 10 Robinson, Sappho and Phaon [Wu] (1796)
M Feb 15 Smith, Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems [Wu] (1784-97)
W Feb 17 Smith, Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems: 43, 44, 47, 57, 59, 70 (1797)
PAPER #1 DUE
M Feb 22 Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (1798): "Simon Lee," "We Are Seven," "Lines Written in Early Spring," "The Thorn," "Expostulation and Reply," "The Tables Turned," "Tintern Abbey"
W Feb 24 Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp" (1795-1828), "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (1797-1800), "Kubla Khan" (1797-1816)
M Mar 1 Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1797-1817), "Christabel" (1797-1816), "Frost at Midnight" (1798)
W Mar 3 Barbauld, "To Mr. S. T. Coleridge" (1797), "Washing-Day" (1797), Robinson, "To the Poet Coleridge" (1800), Lyrical Tales (1800): "All Alone," "The Poor, Singing Dame," "The Haunted Beach," "Deborah's Parrot," "The Alien Boy"
M Mar 8 Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (1800): "Strange Fits of Passion," "Song," "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal," "Nutting," "Three Years She Grew"; Poems in Two Volumes (1807): "She Was a Phantom of Delight," "I Travell'd Among Unknown Men," "Resolution and Independence," "Ode (There was a time)"
W Mar 10 Dacre, "The Unfaithful Lover ," "The Poor Negro Sadi," "The Female Philosopher," "We Can Love But Once," "Wine, I say!" [Wu] (1805)
M Mar 15 Tighe, Psyche [Wu] (1805)
W Mar 17 Tighe, Psyche [Wu] (1805)
M Mar 22 Shelley, "Alastor," "To Wordsworth" (1816), Wordsworth, "London 1802"
W Mar 24 Shelley, "Mont Blanc," "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (1817) PAPER #2 DUE
M Mar 29 Spring Break Holiday
W Mar 31 Spring Break Holiday
M Apr 5 Byron, Manfred (1817)
W Apr 7 Austen, Persuasion (1818)
M Apr 12 MW Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
W Apr 14 MW Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
M Apr 19 MW Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
W Apr 21 Keats, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" (1817), "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (1820), "The Eve of St. Agnes" (1820)
M Apr 26 Keats, "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode to Melancholy" (1820), "Ode on Indolence" [1819], "Lamia" (1820)
W Apr 28 Hemans, "To the Poet Wordsworth" (1826), Records of Woman (1828): "The Bride of the Greek Isle," "Properzia Rossi," "The Indian City," "Indian Woman's Death-Song," "Joan of Arc, in Rheims"
M May 3 Hemans, Records of Woman (1828): "Madeline: A Domestic Tale," "The Memorial Pillar," "The Grave of a Poetess" PAPER #3 DUE
W May 5 Landon, "The Lost Pleiad" (1829), "Revenge" (1829), "Felicia Hemans" [1836]
F May 14 Exam Week Class 3:30-5:30
Web Resources:
Voice of the Shuttle: The Romantics (Alan Liu)
Romantic Literary Resources (Jack Lynch)
Romantic Links (Michael Gamer)
Romantics Unbound (David Hogsetter)
Romantic Chronology (Laura Mandell and Alan Liu)
Chronology of Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Frank/Indexes/timeline.html#1800
Romanticism on the Net (Michael Eberle-Sinatra)
Romantic Circles (Fraistat, Jones, Reiman, Stahmer)
Women Romantic-Era Writers (Adriana Craciun)