Engl 351
HC 2-29. Tuesday/Thursday 9.30 - 10.50; 1996-97
Department of English, University of Alberta
David S. Miall. HC 4.67 Tel. 492-2236
Office hours (both terms): Tuesday 13.00 - 13.50;Wednesday 13.00 - 13.50
Engl 351
HC 2-29. Tuesday/Thursday 9.30 - 10.50; 1996-97
Department of English, University of Alberta
Graphic: Carl Hackert, "Vue de la Mer de Glace et de l'Hôpital de Blair," (1781); Centre d'iconographie genevois.
The British Romantic writers lived through a period of rapid social change and the violent political upheavals of the French Revolution and its aftermath, and responded fully to these changes in their writing. We will focus on a selection of the poetry and prose written during this period, from the Fall of the Bastille (1789) to the Reform Act (1832). The writers to be studied will include poets such as Blake, Robinson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Hemans, Tighe, and Keats, the political writings of Burke, Williams, Wollstonecraft and Godwin, selections from the work of the main essayists, such as Hazlitt and De Quincey; and several novels that represent the Gothic tradition or the reaction against it. In addition to considering the literary texts, we will also look at some of the theoretical writings of the period, such as Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads and Shelley's Defence of Poetry.
There will be a limited number of lectures during the course. Much of the important work will take place in discussion sessions and in small groups who will report on the poems or other writings they have chosen to study. The resources available for the course include computer facilities in Tory B39: a hypermedia anthology of Romantic period literature and art (ed. Miall and Wu), and texts of some of the poetry and prose on the course that are available for text analysis. You will be shown how to make use of these facilities during several sessions in the lab. At various times, reports and additional information will be placed on this web page.
Here are links to the CNS pages for information on lab schedules: Tory B39. And follow this link for general information about the instructional computing labs on campus.
Duncan Wu, ed., Romanticism: An Anthology (Blackwell)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Norton)
William Godwin, Caleb Williams (Oxford Classics)
Ann Radcliffe, The Italian (Oxford Classics)
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Oxford Classics)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1818, ed. M. Butler (Oxford Classics)
Marilyn Gaull, English Romanticism: The Human Context (Norton)
Numbers in brackets are page numbers in Wu.
Sep 5 Introductions
Sep 10/12 Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp" (505),
-- "This Lime-Tree Bower" (511)
Sep 17/19 Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight" (516)
Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" (240). Tintern and New Historicism
Sep 24/26 Arts Lab: Session I
Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (focus on 201-216).
Narrative approach: group report on "Lines Written in Early Spring" (gif file: 124K).
Oct 1/3 Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1800 (250-269)
Report on Wordsworth's Preface and Poetry
Wordsworth: the Preface and "The Idiot Boy"Blake, from Songs of Innocence and Experience (55-58; 66, 69-70, 73-4)
Oct 8/10 More (26-31); Burke (4-7); Williams (139-143); Southey (607-611)
Additional reading on More, Burke, Williams
Wollstonecraft, Vindication. Summary of Vindication
Oct 15/17 Godwin, from Political Justice (44-46)
Godwin, Caleb Williams. Notes from group discussions, October 17
Oct 22/24 Arts Lab: Session II (Tuesday only; no class Thursday)
Oct 29/31 Burke (3-4); Radcliffe, The Italian
Nov 5/7 The Italian; Austen, Northanger Abbey
Group notes on The Italian.
Nov 12/14 Coleridge, "The Ancient Mariner" (167-185; 578-595).
See selected Abstracts for The Mariner.
-- "Kubla Khan" (514); Hazlitt, "My First Acquaintance with Poets" (643-656)
Evaluation of computer component -- see report.
Nov 19/21 Robinson (115-119); Barbauld (23-25)
D. Wordsworth (495-499)
Nov 26/28 Coleridge, "Dejection: An Ode" (560) Essay 1 due
Wordsworth, "Ode [Intimations of Immortality]" (276; 480)
Students' essays on the web.
Dec 3 Wordsworth, The Prelude, Books I (284), VI (350), X (423), XI (446)
Jan 7/9 Wordsworth, The Prelude, cont.
-- from Preface 1815 (476-479) Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (574-577)
Jan 14/16 Shelley, "Alastor" (834); "Mont Blanc" (856)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1818
Jan 21/23Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1818
Jan 28/30 Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (870)
"The Mask of Anarchy" (943)
Feb 4/6 Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, Acts I & II (876-916)
Feb 14/16 Shelley, Defence of Poetry (956)
Byron, Manfred (734)
Feb 18/20 Reading week
Feb 25/27 Byron, Don Juan Canto 1 (769)
De Quincey, Confessions (675-683)
Mar 4/6 De Quincey, Suspiria (688-695)
Tighe (597-599); Hemans (988-992)
Mar 11/13 Project Presentations:
Tuesday: Reading Mont Blanc (Scott, Markus, Kalyn) project reports [added: April 2]
Frankenstein: What does it take to make a human being? (Betsy, Beth, Emily, Tracy)
project reports [added: April 3]Thursday: Shameless Scribblers: Romantic Women Writers (Larissa, Debra, Laura)
project reports [added: April 4]
Mar 18/20 Project Presentations:
Tuesday: Romantic reaction to the French Revolution (Steve, John, Stephen):
see Stephen Philipson's report; Project Report
and Coleridge and the Revolution (John Bennett)
Byron's Manfred (Wing See)
Thursday: Frankenstein: Ethics in Scientific Discovery (Jeenu)Keats: early sonnets (1009, 1016); Letters (various)
Mar 25/27 -- "The Eve of St Agnes" (1039) Project report due
-- "La Belle Dame" (1051); "Ode to Psyche" (1054)
Apr 1/3 -- Odes (1056-1060; 1063) Essay 2 due
-- "The Fall of Hyperion" (1064)
Apr 8/10 Retrospect; revision topics
Apr 17, 9.00 - 11.00. Final examination
In addition to a final exam, there will be two essays and a project report. Essays and reports, which should be typed, must be handed to me in person at the beginning of the class period at which they are due. Essays should under no circumstances be put under my office door, or given to another student to submit, or faxed to the Department. Late essays will only be accepted if valid medical or other reasons are presented in advance of the due date. An essay showing evidence of plagiarism will be awarded no marks, and the student concerned may face other penalties in addition. No essays can accepted or reconsidered after the final examination.
Students are asked to provide $2 at the beginning of the course, to defray the cost of the handouts and other photocopies that will be provided during the year.
Assessment:
Marking scale. Here is how a percentage translates into a grade point:Essay 1 (1500 words) 20%. Due Nov 26
Project and report (1000 words) 20%. Due Mar 18
Essay 2 (2500 words) 30%. Due Apr 1
Final exam 30%
90-100% = 9
80-89% = 8
73-79% = 7
65-72% = 6
58-64% = 5
50-57% = 4 (pass)
46-49% = 3 (fail)
Essay 1 (1500 words). Either (a) Choose one of the poems by Coleridge, Wordsworth, or Blake that is not listed on this outline. Paying attention to structure, diction, and speaker as appropriate, show in what way the poem exemplifies Romantic themes and concerns. Or (b) Explore one of the psychological, philosophical, political, or literary critical issues that have arisen during the course so far. Discuss it in relation to at least two of the poetry or prose texts you have studied up to now.
Essay 2 (2500 words). Choose one of the longer poems (200 lines or more) by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, or Keats. Discuss the poem in the light of (1) the main Romantic techniques and ideas discussed during the course and (2) one or more of the theoretical statements by these poets that we have considered.
Final exam. You will answer three questions, one from each section. Section 1 will offer several questions on the individual writers and works studied in Term 1; Section 2 will offer questions on writers and works from Term 2; Section 3 will consist of theoretical questions about the key terms and ideas of the Romantic period.
NB. As an alternative to conventional printed form, students may wish to present their essays as hypertext documents on the Web. Essays 1 and 2, as well as the Project report, could be presented this way, either singly, or in linked format. If you intend to do this, please study the instructions about setting up your own home page on the Proseminar course home page. A web essay could (optionally) also include graphics or diagrams, or links to other web sites.
For example hypertext essays (locally produced), see the home page of Paul Dyck, and my own hypertext essay on Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.
Students' essays on the web:
See sample home page for you to edit.
From my web site you can download a copy of HTML-Writer (the program we have used in the Tory lab) by clicking here; and a support file you also need: VBRUN300.dll. Then download pkunzip.exe, also from my web site, which will enable you to unzip the files. Download these three files to the same directory on your computer, then unzip each in turn. At MS-DOS level the commands are:
Finally, in Windows, create a pathway to running the program and place its icon on your desktop, by calling the program up (New command in Windows 3.1; new shortcut in Windows 95). It is called htmlwrit.exe.
On HTML authoring: in addition to the Proseminar page, see this link to an online book at QUE publishers.
A note on Projects
You will probably elect to work as part of a group of four students for the Project. You will choose which text or texts to study and how to present your findings (more guidance will be provide nearer the time). Evidence of library research and/or use of the Hypertext will be expected in project presentations and reports, but this need not be confined to conventional literary criticism; indeed, wider reading in history, landscape, etc., is encouraged. The Project presentation (this is likely to take the form of a display) will integrate the work of the contributing students. The report will offer a brief and informal overview of your individual contribution to the Project. The grade for the Project report will be based on the quality of both the group presentation and your individual report.
For further guidance on projects, methods of study and presentation, see the Projects section of the Romanticism hypermedia in Tory B39.
We may not often refer explicitly to Gaull during the course, but you should aim to read sections from the book as follows:
Chapters 1 and 2 by September 17
Chapter 10 by October 1
Chapter 9 by October 15
Chapter 11 by January 7
Chapter 7 by February 7
You may also find much that is suggestive or interesting to you elsewhere in the book, as well as using the book as a reference (e.g., the short sections on Wollstonecraft or Godwin) and as a guide to further reading (see the notes to each chapter). Marilyn Gaull is editor of The Wordsworth Circle, one of the main journals in our area.
A very useful Romanticism Chronology is edited by Laura Mandell and Alan Liu. This provides an important resource for following the dates of significant publications, political developments, etc.
A new Romanticism home page and journal (from Oxford University). The first issue of the journal was published in February 1996. It appears quarterly.
Developed by Alan Liu, with contributions from many others, The Voice of the Shuttle is a rich resource for internet links in all the humanities disciplines. For Romanticism studies in particular, go direct to the Romanticism page.
A new web site for Romanticism studies has recently appeared on line: this link is to the development version. It is associated with NASSR, the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism. Check it out!
The Shelley circle. See the web links on my course on the Shelleys, Engl 450, for Percy and Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, and the Gothic.
Women writers of the Romantic period: an extensive list of internet texts and other resources.
Materials on the Gothic are available from Virginia.
Victorian Literature web, at Brown University: a chronology, and some useful information that overlaps with the Romantic/Gothic period.
Romanticism scholars. Here are two web sites with links to a couple of relevant courses, where useful information has been placed on the net:
For information on TACT, developed at the University of Toronto, see this web page demonstration of the software.
Closer to home: University of Alberta Library System information is available from the library's home page; or, more specifically, see the home page for the Rutherford library. For resources in English literature, see these pointers.
Last updated Friday, April 4, 1997
