ENGL 331(F) British Romanticism: The First Generation

This course will examine the first generation of British Romantic poets-William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge-against the backdrop of their times. In addition to major poetic and prose works of Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, our readings will include the work of political theorists like Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Paine; of periodical essayists Charles and Mary Lamb, and William Hazlitt; and of the age's most popular women poets, including Hannah More, Anna Barbauld, Mary Robinson, and Charlotte Smith. Our discussions will explore the forms of pleasure and illumination these various texts can provide us. We will also be considering broader questions concerning the relation of an emergent, self-conscious "Romantic" aesthetic to such political, economic, and social events as the French Revolution, the transformation of Great Britain into an industrial society and colonial power, and the emergence of a British periodical culture and a mass reading public. The last two weeks of the course will look ahead to the second generation of Romantic poets-Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Requirements: two 5-page essays and one 10-page essay. Prerequisite: English 101. Enrollment limited to 25. (1800-1900)

Hour:  SWANN