Prof. Fay EN405 British Romanticism MWF 12-12:50

Prof. Fay EN405 British Romanticism MWF 12-12:50

Fall 10

Office: W-6-87; 287-6715 (leave message)

Hours: MW 3.30-4pm and by appt.

CourseDescription:

British Romanticism refers to an age when intellectual and imaginative energy and passion, and the stirrings of different kinds of revolution challenged the status quo and created the groundwork for the modern world we know today. The Romantic Period (roughly 1780s-1840s), began as an age of radicalism and revolutionary hopes, based not just on the economic revolt of the American colonies, and the political and philosophical revolution that began in France in the 1780s, but also on the eighteenth-century revolutions occurring in scientific thought, economic theory, industrial and commercial innovations, and a changing conception of individual identity and subjective experience. Some of principle literary artists of the period were William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Robinson, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats. We will be examining the different strains of literature being produced in the significant years of this period in order to understand something more about how readers experienced literature at the time, combining our study of canonical writers with that of lesser-known writers as we explore the conversations that opened up over important events, developments, and ideas.

(satisfies the pre-1850 requirement)

Outcomes Assessment:

We will be one of 4 upper-level courses in the English major working with Outcomes Assessment. This simply means that you will be keeping homeworks and papers in a special folder, and that we will spend a bit of class time reflecting on our work this semester.

Required Texts:

The Broadview Anthology of Literature of the Revolutionary Period 1770-1832

Edited by: D.L. Macdonald & Anne McWhir

Paperback

ISBN: 9781551110516 / 1551110512

(You must buy this anthology—you won’t be able to patch together our reading list from different sources)

Any edition of The Last Man by Mary Shelley (several editions are available on Amazon, and 3 are available on Kindle)

Additional readings, reading questions, and homework assignments will be posted on the class wiki, along with a page for online discussion posting, at:

Websites:

For contextual information:

Britannia This website’s history page gives you brief summaries of various events in British history; the homepage has links for maps, biographies of monarchs and important persons, historical documents and timelines. Beware the popups, which are very annoying.

The Romantic Chronology Website [ This is a wonderful resource. Choose a box with a year or range of years corresponding to your author or text and see what historical and cultural events occurred in the same period.

The Romantic Circles Website [ This website has many features, including editions, bibliographies, and other research resources, as well as its own high-quality journal, Praxis.

A Romantic Natural History Website [

Here you can learn about the period’s fascination with natural history, particularly zoology, with wonderful period illustrations.

The Georgian Index Website [ This is a spotty website, but does have very nice illustrations of Regency life and times.

National Gallery Website [ For portraits of important persons.

RON (Romanticism on the Net ejournal) [ Another ejournal to supplement your library research.

For literary texts not in our anthology:

The Blake Archive [ ] A wonderful site devoted to William Blake’s poetry and illustrations, giving all available versions of each poem.

Voice of the Shuttle Website [ ] This is a metasite, which provides links to other sites containing texts or helpful information.

Literature Compass Romanticism ejournal accessible from Healey Library databases webpage. This ejournal has articles, book and article reviews, and links to other ejournals.

For writing papers:

For citations, footnotes/endnotes, and bibliography guidelines use the MLA style sheet online at:

Course Goals:

The goals of this course are to increase your knowledge of literary and cultural history, to enhance your skills in textual analysis, and to help you begin to understand the Romantic Period as one in which individual artists were not just representative of the times, but were producing insights and visions that continue to have meaning for us today and implications for our own development as individuals and as a culture.

Class Procedure: Attendance counts; according to university policy, any absences over 2 weeks of missed classes affects your final grade, with 3 lates of 5 min. or more equaling one absence. Papers are due in class on the date specified or before class by email; any paper handed in or emailed after class is one day late. Thereafter, each class meeting counts as a “day”--one day late =A to A-, etc. Paper assignments will specify required length, which assumes a 12 pt font and double-spacing (handwritten essays will not be accepted). What I am looking for is your analysis of the works and the extent to which you build on class discussion to develop your own ideas of how to best understand some aspect of the text in relation to the paper assignment. Each paper needs an organizing thesis, which should be clearly stated and well-thought out even for more creative assignments. My comments will be both reflective and corrective; do not assume that a lot of comments means you are not doing well, since my comments are always aimed at pushing you further. Your course grade will consist of:

1) 15% for participation in class discussion, including the willingness to contribute, as well as your preparation of and engagement with the readings, and any written homework or research assignments. Surprise reading quizzes may be given if preparation for class discussion seems inadequate.

2) 15% for reading notes and responses to assigned questions. These will cover a range of responsive writing to the assigned texts we’ll be reading this semester. Generally these will be collected and returned, but keep all writing even if not collected; put these together so that at the end of the semester they form a reading journal for the course.

3) 20% for one 4-5pp. analytic paper on an assigned topic (see handout).

4) 15% for a group oral report of 10 minutes based on an assigned reading; presentation date will depend on the text you sign up for. I will suggest topics and scholarly articles and other resources to focus on for your report. We will meet as a group to make sure everyone is clear on their part of the research and report preparation. Your goal is to initiate class discussion for that class meeting. At the end of that class, the group will hand in report notes, Bibliographies listing primary and secondary materials, copies of handouts, and any other materials pertinent to your presentation.

5) 35 % for the case study(12 pp.) of one author. Focusing on one or more works by this author, your project will include an introductory essay, the texts or text excerpts of the works, and a comparative discussion of 4 critical articles on the works (or if not possible, a combination of articles on the works and the authors). The articles you discuss will have to be vetted by me to make sure they represent solid scholarship, and to make sure that you have selected a good representation of the scholarship available. A prospectus will be due several weeks before the project is due to give us time to refine projects where necessary.

**All students will be held to the University’s rules for academic honesty, including penalties for plagiarism (cheating on exams and the use of unattributed sources in papers).

Special Needs:

Anyone having special medical or family emergencies that will result in more than 6 absences should discuss your situation with me in advance.

Anyone needing assistance for special learning requirements should notify me so that we can make the necessary arrangements.

Reading Assignments:

Date is due date, page #s refer to Broadview Anthology; Reading schedule may change, so be sure to check the course wiki for any updates if you are late to class or absent

Sept.W 8Introduction, handout

F 10For class, visit the Romantic Circles and the Romantic Chronology websites.

Come prepared to discuss what you noticed about the Romantic period from

these sites. Blake, Songs of Innocence (265-8)

M 13William Blake, Songs of Innocence, con’t.; Hannah More, “Will Chip” and

“Patient Joe” (120-27)

W 15Blake, Songs of Experience (293-8); Visit the Blake Archive to see the color

prints of these and other Blake poems. Be prepared to talk about an image that

grabbed your attention

F 17Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (268-76)

M 20 The Marriage of H&H con’t, Erdman exerpts

W 22 William Wordsworth Lyrical Ballads (1798) (617-38, all except “Tintern

Abbey”)

F 24Lyrical Ballads con’t.; oral reports handout

M 27 Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”1st paper assigned

W 29Lyrical Ballads (1800) (“Preface” 645-651, poems 651-56)

Oct.F 1 No class: library assignment

M 4Ann Yearsley (221-26), Robert Burns (360-73)

W 6Anna Letitia Barbauld (91-111); 1st paper due

F 8Thomas Love Peacock (985-91); oral reports sign up

M 11 (Columbus Day – No Class )

W 13Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (385-428; highlight 385-401, 426-28)

F 15Vindication of the Rights of Woman con’t, Richard Polwhele (467-71)

M 18Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales and “The Camp” (343-49)

W 20Robinson, Sappho and Phaon, “To the Poet Coleridge” (328-43, 351)

F 22S. T. Coleridge “Fears in Solitude,” “Lime-Tree Bower,” “Stranger Minstrel”

(749-52, 780-82)

M 25“Frost at Midnight,” “The Nightingale” (754-5, 778-9)

W 27Coleridge “Dejection: An Ode” (796-8)

F 29Thomas De Quincey, “On Knocking at the Gate” (982-84)

Nov.M 1De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (971-82)

W 3Mary Shelley, The Last Man

F 5The Last Man

M 8 The Last Man

W 10 The Last Man; Case Study project assigned

F 12Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude (1153-1163)

M 15 PB Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind,” “Sonnet: England in 1819” (1207-8, 1275)

W 17 PB Shelley, “Mont Blanc” (1164-66)

F 19PB Shelley, Mask of Anarchy (1266-73); Prospectus for Case Study due

M 22 George Gordon, Lord Byron, Manfred (1041-63)

W 24 Byron, Childe Harold III (1028-41)

F 25 (Thanksgiving Break)

M 29 Byron, Don Juan Dedication and Canto 1 (1063-95)

Dec.W 1 John Keats Hyperion (1362-73)

F 3Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1357-9)

M 6 Keats,“Ode on Melancholy,” “To Autumn” (1361-2)

W 8Felicia Hemans (1299-top left column of 1311)

F 10Felicia Hemans (1311-21)

M 13 Portfolios; Reading journals due, Portfolios due.

W 15 Final projects due by email or in my box.

Letter from the English Department Chairperson on the Learning Assessment Portfolios:

We have ordered plastic pendaflex folders for you to file your materials in one place right from the start. Students are asked to bring their folders with them and to put all their written work into them immediately after returned. Students need to understand that program assessment in all departments has been required by the state, by the university’s accrediting agency and the university administration. It will be staged over the next few years, the English Department being among the first to get started through a small-scale project. Further, the specific plan we are implementing has been approved at all levels.
Individual students grades in the course is a separate matter from the assessment portfolio. The assessment of the portfolio will not affect their final grade UNLESS they do not turn it in, in which case a penalty equal to a missing homework assignment will be given. It is important for full participation because we have developed the portfolio plan to fend off standardized testing of content knowledge in the English major. Standardized testing is a form of assessment that we do not think is valid, but ETS has a multiple-choice test for English majors ready to go. Students can help us to maintain a program-specific, developmental and holistic inquiry into student learning by supporting this pilot and turning in their writing and homework portfolios.
Finally, we are getting started by assessing three goals for our courses in the major; we are not assessing individual professors or students. No names will be used in the assessment report and students who would like their portfolios back can pick them up the following term.

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