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| English 458:01 Romantic Poets Spring 2008 Professor Rosso |
Engleman D 246 Phone 392-6744 Office Hours: TTh 11am-12pm; W 3-6 Email: rossog1@southernct.edu |
Schedule of Classes| Writing Assignments | Handouts (Contexts/Authors)
Required Texts
• William Blake Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Oxford edition)
• William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Oxford)
• Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries vol. 2A, third edition.
Course Objectives
The course provides an overview of the British Romantic period and intensive study of key writers and texts that seeks to develop critical understanding and intellectual growth.
We will read mostly poetry (and some prose) in order to study the figurative language, genres, themes, and contexts of Romantic era writers. We will also examine several influential theories of Romanticism, including those that question the Romantic canon and its relation to women's rights, slavery, and empire. Since time prevents our reading the longer works of the period—Wordsworth, Blake, Byron, and Shelley all wrote significant long poems, Joanna Baillie wrote successful plays, and many writers (especially women) published novels—another aim of the course is to prepare you to read these texts on their own. Social and cultural contexts that shape the literature of British Romanticism can be gathered from class lectures, readings in the Longman Anthology , and study of secondary sources.Reading Assignments
Participation in class is mandatory. As part of the participation grade, you are expected to read assigned works at least once before class. It is mandatory that you come to class prepared: if you have not read the material on more than two occasions, your grade will be effected; if I feel you are not keeping up with the reading as a group, we will have in-class writing quizzes on assigned material. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you've missed from other members of the class.
In addition to assigned texts, you are required to read the Longman Anthology head-notes or prefatory material on each writer that appears before selections of their works. We are dealing with real people and it's important to grasp the main events of their lives and the overall body of their works as contexts for the individual texts we study. Also, please familiarize yourselves with the section “Political and Religious Orders” (pp.1007-11), which describes the basic political and religious institutions that govern British life, a topic of fundamental importance to readers of British literature.
Writing Assignments
1. You are required to write two short responses (2-3 pages) and a longer essay (5-6 pages) as well as an essay question for the final exam. All of your essays must be well-organized, carefully thought-out, and proof-read. I know from many years of experience that one or two drafts will not result in good grades. Take the time to rewrite your papers before you hand them in. This is crucial to your success. If you are asked to revise an essay, hand in both the graded draft or drafts and the revised draft together. Feel free to visit during office hours to talk about improving your writing.
2. The first two writing assignments on the artist poet William Blake can be combined in the sense that your first short response can be developed and expanded into the longer paper, which is a research paper. You will benefit from consulting the British Romantic Studies website and the Longman Anthology bibliography for helpful studies of poems you are interested in writing about. Buley Library contains a large and updated section on the works of Blake and other Romantic-era writers that you are encouraged to consult and use. You will need at least three sources for the longer paper: citations must follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) format.
3. The midterm and final exams are designed to test your knowledge of the course in terms that are more broad than are needed for essay writing. The final exam is not cumulative, although major concepts and events studied in the first part of the course are inherited and transformed by later writers and groups: the course is designed to move in a basically chronological direction but it will offer in-depth historical study.
Grading Rubric
Participation 15%
Short Essays 10% each
Long Essay 20%
Midterm 20%
Final Exam 25%