Romantic Revolutions, 1789-1832 English 319: Backgrounds to British Romantic Literature É Instructor: Dr. George Grinnell Office: Arts 177 Hours: Wednesday 12-2:00pm Email: [email protected]
Course Description: This course will examine the poetry and prose of the Romantic era in the context of the remarkable number of social and political upheavals that mark the turn of the nineteenth century in Britain. Beginning with the French Revolution, this age is marked by persistent efforts to reorganize relations of power within a number of social, political, and cultural arenas. We will examine how the French Revolution becomes a symbol of possible social change that invigorated debate on issues ranging from women’s rights to abolition, and from new aesthetic forms to the emergence of the bourgeoisie as the dominant class of English civil life. How do these various revolutions in social and cultural life intersect and support or undermine one another? Why does a decisively modern discourse of human rights emerge in this period? The course will probe the ways in which we are inheritors not just of these discussions of rights, but also of Romantic ideals of individuality, psychology, and role and function of literature, ideals that have become pervasive and appear to us now to be entirely natural.
How literature and culture consolidates and revises the discourses that shaped the lives of individuals in the period will be an ongoing consideration in the course. To that end, we will approach literary texts historically, as works which profoundly shape and are shaped by the particular social and political energies of the age, just as we will also attend closely to the persistent problems of reading and the opportunities for interpretation each text poses.
Required Texts: The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald The Monk by Matthew Lewis The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
Lecture Schedule: Monday, Thursday 2:00-3:30
Assignment Structure: Participation 10% Close Reading 15% Midterm Exam (Feb. 12) 20% Essay (2500-3000 words) 25% Final Exam 30% Information on Assignments: Close Reading You will be given a passage from Inchbald’s A Simple Story and will be required to provide a single, double-spaced page of analysis of the text. The goal of this assignment is provide close textual analysis of the sort you would provide in a larger essay. You are not asked to produce the apparatus of an essay but instead to unpack what is at stake in this particular passage and what this means for a larger argument about the text. Pay attention to the author’s use of particular literary figures such as metaphor, diction, tone, ambiguity, and so on to understand the full complexity of what this passage does for the work as a whole. Part of this assignment is also designed to compel you to revise and edit for clarity and persuasiveness by limiting your analysis to only one page. Thus a premium will be placed on your ability to generate a significant, nuanced, and cogent analysis that responds to the specificity of the selected passage with efficiency and clarity.
Essay You will be assigned a topic for the essay and choose either 1 or 2 works from the course in order to develop a critical argument that refines and explores the assigned topic in a specific manner relevant to your chosen text(s). The essay may draw upon outside research sources, but it is expected to be an original work of approximately 8 pages (2000-2500 words), and will present an critical argument that incorporates the close reading methodology and the attention to historical context we will be working with for much of the course. The essay must be written in MLA style.
Academic Integrity: The academic enterprise is founded on honesty, civility, and integrity. As members of this enterprise, all students are expected to know, understand, and follow the codes of conduct regarding academic integrity. At the most basic level, this means submitting only original work done by you and acknowledging all sources of information or ideas and attributing them to others as required. This also means you should not cheat, copy, or mislead others about what is your work. Violations of academic integrity (i.e., misconduct) lead to the break down of the academic enterprise, and therefore serious consequences arise and harsh sanctions are imposed. For example, incidences of plagiarism or cheating usually result in a failing grade or mark of zero on the assignment or in the course. Careful records are kept in order to monitor and prevent recidivism.
A more detailed description of academic integrity, including the policies and procedures, may be found at http://www.library.ubc.ca/clc/airc.html
Late Policy Assignments will not be accepted late unless accompanied by a doctor’s note.
A Note on Readings: While most of the readings come from BABL: The Age of Romanticism, some readings (marked as “BABL: online”) will be located online at Broadview Press: http://www.broadviewpress.com/babl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=42
Additionally, a very small number of readings are available as etexts and will be distributed via Vista. Schedule of Readings and Assignments
Week 1 1. Introductions
2. “The Age of Romanticism” (BABL) Anna Letitia Barbauld, “The Mouse’s Petition” (BABL, Online) Robert Burns, “To a Mouse” Revolutions 1: The French Revolution Week 2 1. “Contexts: The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era” (BABL, Online): Read Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France Thomas Paine, from The Rights of Man Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
2. “Contexts: The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era” (BABL, Online): Read Richard Price, from A Discourse Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from various (pages 10-13) George Walker, from The Vagabond (1799) Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte” Matthew Lewis, “France and England in 1793” Thomas Paine, from The Age of Reason (Lewis and Paine are located in The Monk pgs. 385- 388) Revolutions 2: Gender Politics Week 3 1. Mary Robinson, from A Letter to the Women of England Anna Letitia Barbauld, “The Rights of Woman” Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
2. Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
Week 4 1. Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
2.Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story; Appendix C: 390-428 Close Reading Assignment Available January 29th; Due Monday Feb. 2nd
Post-Kantian Aesthetics: Romanticism and Discourses of the Body Week 5 1. William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, “The Tables Turned”, “Nutting” “Song”, “There was a boy”
2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from “Principles of Genial Criticism” (Vista), “Frost at Midnight”
Week 6 1. William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, “London” William Wordsworth, “London 1802"
2. Midterm February 12, in class.
Reading Week Gothic Transgressions Week 7 Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Week 8 Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Imperialism, History, and the Nation Week 9 1. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Mask of Anarchy”, “Song to the Men of England” “England in 1819”
2. Mary Shelley, from The Last Man (anthology and online) Charles Brockden Brown, from Arthur Mervyn (Vista)
Week 10 1. John Keats, “To Autumn”, “On First looking into Chapman’s Homer” “To Homer,”
2. John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” “In Context: The Elgin Marbles” Essay Due March 19th Revolutions 3: Abolitionism Week 11 Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Week 12 Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Week 13 Review Classes end April 8