AcadiaUniversity Faculty of Arts

English 2386 X0: Literature of the Romantic Period

Regular Session 2006-2007 (both terms)

MWF 12:30-1:20 (Slot 5) Location: BAC 206

Instructor: Dr. Jon Saklofske
Email: / Office: BAC 423
Office Phone: 585-1422
Office Hours : 2:00-3:00 p.m. MWF or by
appointment

Course Description and Objectives:

This course focuses on the diverse literature of the Romantic Period in England (1785-1830), a period of social, political and artistic change and contradiction. Favouring imagination, emotion and vision, artists and writers variously combined an historical nostalgia, a self-aware immediacy and a hopeful idealism, and their expressions became vehicles for innovative approaches to revolution, rebellion and repose. This course looks at the way in which the contextual energies and dynamism of this uncertain period manifest themselves in the form and content of its literary expression. We will examine major themes and authors of the period, engaging in close readings to understand the particular concerns and nuances of each writer, but also evolving a comparative consideration between writers and their works to better understand the conflicts and complex interrelations that characterise the Romantic period.

Course Materials and Format:

Required Texts:

1. Austen. Jane. Northanger Abbey. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. New York: Pearson Longman 2005.

2. Lewis, Matthew. The Monk. Eds. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf.

Peterborough: Broadview, 2003.

3. Robinson, Mary. A Letter to the Women of England and The Natural Daughter. Ed. Sharon M. Setzer. Peterborough: Broadview, 2003.

4. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: The Original 1818 text. 2nd Ed. Eds. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Peterborough: Broadview, 1999.

5. Wolfson, Susan and Peter Manning, eds. The Longman Anthology of British Literature.

Volume 2A—The Romantics and their Contemporaries. 3rd Ed. New York: Longman,

2006.

Optional Text:Buckley, Joanne. Fit to Print: The Canadian Student’s Guide to Essay

Writing. 6th Ed. Scarborough: Nelson Thomson, 2004.

Assignments and Evaluation:

Students are expected to attend class, to participate in class discussion and to fully participate in the technological components of this course. Please note that January 12 is the last day to drop full-year courses without academic penalty. It is essential that assigned readings be read carefully and critically. The final grade will be based on the following partial grades:

5%Essay #1: Due October 4 (900 words minimum)

10%Essay #2: Due November 8 (1200 words minimum)

5% Essay #3: Written Dec. 4 In Class (600 words minimum)

10%Essay #4: Due Feb. 14 (1200 words minimum)

15%Essay #5: Due March 26 (printed copy) (1500 words minimum)

10%Attendance, In-Class Participation and Quizzes (5% per term)

15%MOO Participation (5%) (1st term) and Building (10%) (2nd term)

30%Final Exam

Total: 100%

  • All essays should consist of a central thesis supported by a well-structured argument. Topics will be provided for the assignments through ACME(except for the in-class essay) in the first few weeks of the course. Essays will be evaluated for both content and style. Please provide proper documentation for essays, making use of MLA citation style and including a Works Cited page. (For information on MLA style, please consult a style guide or go to: Additionally, essays should be double-spaced and word processed using a 12-point font.
  • Except for the in-class essay and the last paper (Essay #5), all essay assignments should be submitted to me electronically via ACME. NOTE: Essay #5 should be printed out and submitted to me in person during class on the due date. We will spend some class time reviewing the characteristics of an effective essay. Please note that I will not accept assignments submitted after the last day of lectures.
  • The In-Class Essay will be handwritten during class time on the scheduled date and will be closed book (no textbooks, notes, computers or other material allowed).
  • Final Exam:
    There will be a mandatory final examination scheduled during the April exam period. The final examination will be worth 30% of your final grade.

Penalties:

  1. Late Assignments: Papers are due before the end of class on the specified due date. Papers submitted after class will be considered late. It is your responsibility to contact me as soon as possible regarding late or missed assignments. Late assignments are subject to a penalty of 1/3 letter grade per day (including weekends) unless you are granted an extension due to documented medical or compassionate circumstances. (i.e. a “B” paper that is handed in two days late would receive a mark of “C+”.) Late assignments will be graded, but will include no written commentary. Late essays not submitted electronically MUST be date stamped and submitted to me via the English Department Office (Room 415, Beveridge Arts Centre). I do not accept papers submitted under my office door. Please ensure that papers uploaded to ACME folders are visible to you in those folders after uploading (If you can't see it, then I can't access it).
  1. Plagiarism: Please refer to the section entitled "Academic Integrity" on pages 28-29 of the 2006-2007 Calendar for AcadiaUniversity's policies regarding plagiarism. Note that penalties for plagiarism include rewriting work, receiving a failing grade for a particular assignment, failing the course or being dismissed from the university. Please be aware that faculty members reserve the right to utilise software or websites to test student assignments for the presence of plagiarised material. Although some class time will be spent learning how to avoid the pitfalls of plagiarism, when in doubt, ask me for advice or go to
  1. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. More than 3 unexcused absences per term will result in a significant deduction from your participation mark.

Please note that I will not accept assignments submitted after the last day of lectures.

Course Outline:

This course will engage in a progressively historical and thematic survey of the Romantic Period by focusing on its major authors. As we advance through the various reactions by each writer to the uncertainty and dynamic energy that characterise the period, pay attention to the recurring presence of and individual engagement with the following themes. These themes are not exclusive, but are often simultaneously contrary and complementary in their interaction.

Politics

  • Revolution/Rebellion/Redemption
  • Local/Exotic
  • Individual Poetics/Social Politics
  • Industrialism/Naturalism/Supernaturalism

Aesthetics

  • Novelty/Nostalgia
  • Imagination/Imitation
  • Beautiful Simplicity/Awe-ful Sublimity
  • Precision/Indeterminacy
  • Meditation/Emotion

Tentative Reading Schedule:

  • Readings may be altered as the term progresses

September / 6 / Introduction
8 / Historical Context
(3-29), (1099-1104)
11, 13 / Historical Context
Perspectives:
The Rights of Man and the Revolution Controversy (92-133)
15, 18 / Barbauld
“To a little Invisible Being Who Is Expected Soon to Become Visible” (66), “To the Poor” (67)
20, 22 / Smith
“On Being Cautioned” (87), “The sea view” (87)
25, 27
29 / Blake
“The Lamb” (159), “The Tyger” (177)
“The Chimney Sweeper” (161), “The Chimney Sweeper” (174)
October / 2, 4, 6 / Essay #1 Due October 4
Blake
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 11 (189), Plates 17-20 (192-195), “Song of Liberty” (handout).
11, 13, 16 / Wollstonecraft
All selections from “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (281-301)
18, 20, 23, 25, 27 / Robinson
The Natural Daughter
November / 30
1 / The Natural DaughterMOO and discussion
3, 6 / Baillie
From “Plays on the Passions” (357-362), “A Mother to Her Waking Infant” (363)
8 / Essay #2 due November8
Burns
“To A Mouse” (324-25),
10, 15 / Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads (408-418)
17, 20 / Wordsworth
“Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (404-408); “The World is too much with us” (450),
22 / Wordsworth
“Resolution and Independence” (520-524)
24, 27, 29 / Wordsworth
The Prelude: Book First (453-468), Book Fifth “The Mystery of Words” (478)
December / 1 / Burke
From “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” (33-40)
4 / In Class Essay(#3)
January / 8, 10 / Wordsworth
“Intimations of Immortality” (528-533)
12, 15 / Coleridge
“Dejection: An Ode” (619-623)
17, 19 / Coleridge
Biographia Literaria (all excerpts) (628-640)
22, 24 / Coleridge
Lectures on Shakespeare “Mechanic vs. Organic Form (641-42), “Stage Illusion” (643-44),‘Shakespeare’s Images” (644-45), “Kubla Khan” (614-16)
26, 29 / Coleridge
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (580-595)
February / 31
2, 5, 7, 9, 12 / Austen
Northanger Abbey
14, 16 / Essay #4 due February 14
Byron
Manfred (659-695)
February 19-23: Study Week (No Classes)
26 / Byron
Manfred (cont.) (659-695)
28 / Shelley
A Defence of Poetry (867-876)
March / 2 / Shelley
“Ode to the West Wind” (835-837)
5 / Keats
Letters (992-1001), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (955-57)
7 / Keats
“To Autumn” (960-61)
9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21 / Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
April / 23, 26, 28, 30
2, 4 / Essay #5 due March 26
Matthew Lewis
The Monk
9 / (MOO spaces must be finished by today)
Review