Sept 10: First day of class.
Sept 15: Read "Introduction: The Romantic Period, 1798-1832" in the
Norton Anthology of English Literature, and the introductions in
the Norton to the individual writers in the Romantics section. Read
also the entries I have provided in the coursepack from the Oxford
English Dictionary and Encyclopedia Britannica, and other
sources. Based on your own knowledge of literary history and the reading
for today, choose a poem from this section of the anthology that you think
typifies "Romanticism." Then, write an essay of no more than 400
words in which you (i) define romanticism and (ii) explain why you've
chosen the poem you have as exemplary. Are you defining "Romanticism" as a
literary movement, a historical period, an ideology, or a genre (a "kind"
of writing)? Bring this essay to class on Tuesday.
Sept 17: Read Harold Bloom, "The Internalization of Quest Romance; and M. H. Abrams, "The Structure and Style of the Greater Romantic Lyric." Poems to be read and discussed will be set up in the previous class.
Sept 22: Read Cleanth Brooks, "Keats Sylvan Historian"; Earl Wasserman, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"; and Richard Fogle, "A Note on 'Ode to a Nightingale'. Poems to be read and discussed will be set up in the previous class. Questions:
Sept 24: Read Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (full extracts from Norton). Today we will finish Keats and discuss Byron.
Sept 29: Read Marilyn Butler, "Romanticism in England." Read Marlon
Ross, "Breaking the Period: Romanticism, Historical Representation, and
the Prospect of Genre" (Source: ANQ 6 , 121-31). Both are
very short articles, and I'd like to use these today to talk about
periodization. Therefore, for this class I'd like you to use The
Romantic Chronology on-line (available via my Romantics Page,
to look through the years 1780-1837. Look especially closely at 1789-98,
1801-03, 1807, 1814-15, 1819, 1831-32, etc. I'd then like you to
consider several questions: Why do the editors of the Norton
date the Romantic period as beginning in 1798 and ending in 1832? How
would you critique their choice in light of the other major historical and
literary events of these years? Why 1798? Why 1832? Why then do they
include pre-1798 works as part of this period in their selection? What
other possible dates might be candidates for the beginning and end points
of the Romantic Period? How would Butler date the Romantic Period and who
would she include that the Norton doesn't? To what extent is she
making a case for or against abandoning the idea of Romanticism or the
Romantic Period altogether? What case might you make for getting rid of
the notion of period altogether?
Note: With all of these readings through the end of the semester, I'd like you, after finishing the reading, to take 5 minutes and look to see what poems the Norton Anthology of British Literature has in fact anthologized. Most importantly, you should ask yourself repeatedly how and why the Norton selection amounts to a reading of the poet. How does your understanding of a poem or poet change when you go beyond reading individual poems and instead read that poet's books as they were printed?
Oct 1: Read the introductory material on Blake I've assembled in the coursepack. Read William Blake, Songs of Innocence (1789). For this class, I would like you to think hardest about the ordering of the poems and especially their opening and closing. Question: what kind of narrative, progression, or pattern emerges through your reading? What kind of story do these poems tell?
Oct 6: Continue discussion of Songs of Innocence. Read selections from Robert Essick, William Blake: Printmaker (coursepack). You may wish to focus on such questions as the relationship in this book between country and city, between text and illustration, between Christ and the Church. What other relationships or threads do you find recurring in the book?
Oct 8: Read selections from David Erdman, Blake: Prophet Against Empire (1958). Begin The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790). Question: when the you read the "Proverbs of Hell" within the context of the entire Marriage of Heaven and Hell (rather than just reading them on their own), how does their meaning change? Consider that Blake mentions in the Marriage that he wishes to write a Bible of Hell. Given the dialectic nature of the Marriage, what would be the function of such a Bible?
Oct 13: Read Harold Bloom, "The Dialectic of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. For this class, I would like us to finish The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) and see the extent to which we can apply its oppositional strategies to Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). Rather than reading the entire Songs of Experience, I would like you only to read "The Voice of the Ancient Bard," "London," "Holy Thursday," and "The Chimney Sweeper". I'd then like you to respond to the following Questions: What do the poems I've had you read pair up with poems in Songs of Innocence? What do these pairings tell you about how the book is structured and how it works? Presentation: Paul Elsberg on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Jason Birke on Songs of Experience.
Oct 15: Reread the Britannica material in the coursepack on Samuel Taylor Coleridge I've assembled, and Paul Magnuson's "The Politics of 'Frost at Midnight'" (1991). Then read Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fears in Solitude, with France: An Ode, and Frost at Midnight (1798). Questions: pay close attention to the context of the years 1797-9, and especially the effect that British fears of invasion had on the political and literary climate. Why is "Frost at Midnight" in this book of poems? How does this force you to re-evaluate what the poem can mean?
Oct 20: Read James Averill, "The Shape of Lyrical Ballads." Read the entire first volume of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads; with a Few Other Poems (1798). Pay close attention to the Advertisement; in fact, read it aloud and ask yourself what it is attempting to advertise. Does the Advertisement advertise what is in the volume itself?
Oct 22: Read Neil Fraistat, "The Field of Lyrical Ballads." We'll continue discussion in light of this essay. Presentation: Japheth Brubaker, Jenn McKenna, and Jo Grudziak on Lyrical Ballads.
Oct 27: Read James Butler and Karen Green, "Introduction" to Lyrical Ballads, and Other Poems, 1797-1800 (coursepack), and William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800). While we are not reading the second volume (1800, first appearing in the 2nd edition of 1800) of Lyrical Ballads, you'll find even this part of the introduction and Wordsworth's Preface useful and interesting to your own work. For class, I would like us to finish our discussion of Lyrical Ballads (1798) by reading Wordsworth's Preface as a response to, and a reading of, the first (1798) edition. Question: Does Wordsworth's Preface of 1800 help you to understand the 1798 volume? Does it adequately represent what is in fact in the volume?
Oct 29: Read Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales (1800), cover to cover. Presentation: Andrew Zitcer, Eric Stone, and Eytan Apter on Mary Robinson.
Nov 3: Read Stuart Curran, "Mary Robinson's Lyrical Tales in Context" (1994). Read Francis Jeffrey, Review of Thalaba the Destroyer. Continue discussion of Lyrical Tales.
Nov 5: Finish discussion of Lyrical Tales. Read Greg Kucich, "Gendering the Canons of Romanticism: Past and Present" (1997). While we will finish discussion of Lyrical Tales (1800), I'd like us to consider Kucich's article and how it affects our sense of how literary history--and especially the creation of "Romanticism" as a literary historical moment and movement--unfolds.
Nov 10: Read Lord Byron, The Giaour. For this poem read the notes by Jerome McGann first, and the handout "Notes on The Giaour" I've written up and placed in the coursepack. I'd like you for this class period only to read the lines (and notes) that were printed in the first edition of the poem.
Nov 12: Reread The Giaour, this time in its entirety. Read Scott Simpkins, "The Remix Aesthetic" (1993). Presentation: Myra Lotto and Ayala Zoltan on The Giaour.
Nov 17: Read Lord Byron, Beppo. Read Peter Manning, "The Nameless Broken Dandy and the Structure of Authorship." Presentation: Nancy Park on Beppo.
Nov 19: Read Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep (1816). Presentation: Rifki Zable and Melissa Korblau on Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep.
Nov 24: Finish Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep (1816). Read Karen Swann, "Christabel: The Wandering Mother and the Enigma of Form" (1984).
Nov 26: Thanksgiving
Dec 1: Read John Keats, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems (1820). Again, try to read the volume cover-to-cover.
Dec 3: Continue John Keats. Read Neil Fraistat, "'Lamia' Progressing: Keats's 1820 Volume." LAST POSSIBLE DAY THAT YOU CAN TURN IN A DRAFT OF YOUR LONG ESSAY.
Dec 8: Continue John Keats. Read Marjorie Levinson, "Keats and the Canon."
Dec 10: Last day of class. Finishing Keats. Evaluations, etc.
DECEMBER 11: END OF SEMESTER CONFERENCE
DECEMBER 17: PORTFOLIOS DUE AT 4 PM.