The Chief English Romantic Writers                          Joseph Viscomi (jsviscom@email.unc.edu)

English 437.1, Fall, 2005                                                           office  GL 504, hrs: T-Th 1-2             

2:00-3:15 Tues & Thurs GL 301                                             & appt.  962-8764                  

                                                                                    http://english.unc.edu/faculty/viscomij.html                

TEXTS:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Volume 2A. Seventh Edition.  Edited by M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2003.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Edited with an introduction by Maurice Hindle. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1992.

Trimmer, Joseph. A Guide to MLA Documentation, sixth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004

 

RESOURCES:

The English Romantic Poets; A Review of Research and Criticism, ed.   Frank Jordan, 4th edition. MLA, l985. [Davis Reference Shelf, PR590.E5.1985, ROW 29]. This is an annotated bibliography of books and important articles on the Romantic poets and their works. Critical works on the Romantics from before and after1985 to the present can be found in the Norton Antho. (pgs. A23-33), through the index of periodical literature, the annual bibliography published by Garland Press (from 1979) and journals in the field, e.g., Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, The Wordsworth Circle, and Keats-Shelley Journal, which is now online for the years 1994-2004 at: http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/ksjbib/. See also http://www.lib.unc.edu/ for UNC’s Article Databases (e.g., MLA International Bibliography [1963-2004]), Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, and Literature Online), E-Journal Finder, and Print Journals (Catalog Search); the Romantic Circles at http://www.rc.umd.edu., the Norton Anthology web site at www.wwnorton.com/nael, Voice of the Shuttle, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Romantic/, and Romantic Literary Resources, http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/romantic.html, and Google Scholar at http://www.scholar.google.com/. For articles online, see the Scholarly Journal Archive at http://www.jstor.org/. Also helpful is the Introduction to Library Research, http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/tutorial/.  

 

Blake's The Book of Thel, The Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, America, a Prophecy, Europe, a Prophecy, The Book of Urizen are illuminated books that are reproduced in excellent facsimiles, copies of which are in the Department of Rare Books, Wilson Library; for excellent digital reproductions of various exemplary copies of these and other of Blake’s illuminated books, as well as engravings, paintings, and helpful bibliographies, go to The Blake Archive at http://blakearchive.org [WBA]

 

8/30                 Introduction to course: The Romantic Movement

Contents pages, General Introduction (Norton 1-23, A50). Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology (A61-77)

 

9/1                   WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)

                        Introduction to Blake (N 35-39; Religions in England, A59-60),

poems from Poetical Sketches (+handout)

                        for Blake biography, go to: blakearchive.org/ About Blake/ Biography

                        All Religions Are One, There is No Natural Religion, series a & b (N 41-42)

For images go to blakearchive.org/ Works in the Archive/ Illuminated Books/ARO; NNR;

 

9/6-8                Illuminated Printing and Illuminated Books: blakearchive.org/About Blake/ Illuminated Printing

Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, Songs of Innocence and of Experience

            (go to: blakearchive.org/ Works in the Archive/ Illuminated Books/ Songs of I and of  E)

            (optional: http://www.ibiblio.org/jsviscom/island/)

 

9/13-15                        The Book of Thel; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Prose and letters (N 86-91), French Revolution (N 117-39)

F. Revolution, http://wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/topic_3/welcome.htm, Overview, Contexts, Illustrations

 

9/20                 Blake quiz

 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)

9/20-22, 27      Introduction to WW and Introduction to Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) and selections from her Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals (N 383-96);

http://wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/topic_1/welcome.htm, Overview, Contexts, Illustrations.

from Lyrical Ballads (1798), and handouts: Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads and “Yew Tree”

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (238)

 

9/29, 10/4        Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, ch. 4, 14, 17 (on Wordsworth and origin of Lyrical Ballads) (N 474-86)

Poems (N 251-292; these are mostly from Lyrical Ballads 2nd ed. (2 vols., 1800) and Poems in Two Volumes (1807); Sonnets (N 296-299); Prospectus to The Recluse (N 301)

Prelude, Introduction and excerpts from Books 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14

 

SAMUEL COLERIDGE (1772-1834)

10/6, 11, 13,    Introduction, Poems (N 419-467), focusing on conversation poems and poems of mysticism and demonism; William Hazlitt, intro and My First Acquaintance with Poets (N 513-26)

                        Biographia Literaria, ch. 1, 13;

selections from Lectures on Shakespeare and The Statesman’s Manual

 

10/18               Midterm Exam                                     FALL BREAK 10/20

           

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824)

10/25, 27,        Introduction and letters; Poems (N 555-62), “Prometheus” (handout)

11/1                 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto III; Manfred: A Dramatic Poem;

Don Juan, Cantos 1, 2, 3, 4;

Romantic Orientalism, http://wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/topic_4/welcome.htm, Overview, Context, Ill.

 

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)

11/3, 8, 10,      Introduction, Poems (N 701-32, 763-71); including “Alastor” and Preface, Preface to Prometheus Unbound;

 Adonais; A Defence of Poetry

                        Literary Gothicism, http://wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/topic_2/welcome.htm, Overview, Context, Illus.

 

MARY SHELLEY (1797-1851)

11/15-17          Frankenstein (1831 text and Preface; Hindle’s introduction in the Penguin edition).

 

11/22                           Byron, Shelley, M. Shelley quiz

 

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)

11/22               Introduction, letters, poems (N 82-834; 886-902)

             

11/24               Thanksgiving

 

11/29,              Keats continued:

12/1, 6, 8         Eve of St. Agnes; Lamia; The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream; the Odes, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”

             

FINAL EXAM: Saturay, December 17, 4pm

 

ASSIGNMENTS: two quizzes, midterm, and a final exam. You will be asked to contribute identification questions for exams and to supply detailed answers. Questions and answers are to be typed.

 

Two papers are required: the first will deal with one or more works from the first generation of writers (Blake, Wordsworth, or Coleridge); the second will deal with works from the second generation (Byron, P. Shelley, M. Shelley, or Keats). The topics are open and can be taken from anything we read or discuss in class, or from “Explorations” in Norton online. The topic must be cleared with me at least one week in advanced of the due date; length of the papers should be appropriate to the topic and argument, though four pages are usually too few and ten too many. N.B. All papers should include a works cited page and at least two secondary sources; all web sources must be from vetted sites or refereed electronic journals.

 

GRADES: You are responsible for the works assigned on the syllabus, and not only those works discussed in class. The papers are worth 25 points each; the final exam is worth 25 points; the midterm exam is worth 15 points. The quizzes are worth 3 and 7 points respectively.

 

Due dates for papers on the following authors:

Paper 1. Blake    9/27 (topic due 20)          Wordsworth 10/13 (6)                  Coleridge 10/25 (13)                                           

Paper 2. Byron    11/3 (10)            P. Shelley 11/22 (15)        M. Shelley  11/29 (22)                Keats     12/8 (14)