Syllabus for English 327
(The Romantics):
The Transatlantic 1790s, Fall 2004

Monday, August 30

First day: Introductions and course outline

Wednesday, September 1

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) reading or link is required, while the second (more indented) reading or link is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the first three bullet points are required readings, whereas exploring the French Revolution site is optional.

• Appendices A, B, and C of the Broadview edition of Desmond: short excerpts from Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Helen Maria Williams

• Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Chapters 1-3 (online edition)

• William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Part 8, Chapter 6 (online edition)
  • Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution

Group I Response: Choose one issue (narrower than the French Revolution itself) or one metaphor that arises in two or more of these texts and explore the use and implications of that issue or metaphor.

Monday, September 6

• Pages 418-510 of the Early American Writing anthology
  • The glorious Making of America database of primary texts (subscription only)

Group II Response: Using any moment or passage from Group I's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Tuesday into the readings for today.

Wednesday, September 8

• From Early American Writing: selections from Gustavus Vassa/Olaudah Equiano, The Federalist Papers, Judith Sargent Murray, and Phillis Wheatley

• The Age of Federalism, Introduction and Chapter VIII. Optional further reading: Chapter IX.
  • Brycchan Carey's Equiano page

Group III Response: open response.

Monday, September 13

• William Hill Brown, The Power of Sympathy
  • Paul Reuben's Brown bibliography

Group IV Response: open response. You can (but need not) consider possible relationships between the political prose we have read and Brown's novel.

Wednesday, September 15

• Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette
  • Steve Adams' Foster bibliography

Group I Response: open response

Monday, September 20

• William Wordsworth, An Evening Walk (Major Works 1)

• Alan Liu, from Wordsworth: The Sense of History (reserve)

Group II Response: pick a particularly illuminating or difficult passage from Liu and explain what issues for discussion it raises concerning Wordsworth's poem.

Wednesday, September 22

• William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (online edition)

• William Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion (online edition)
  • Joseph Viscomi, "Illuminated Printing"

  • You're already using texts from the justly celebrated William Blake Archive

Group III Response: open response.

Monday, September 27

This will be the first class dedicated to preparing for the process of researching your final papers. Each of you will annotate one critical work on the readings to date and post the annotation on the discussion board. Then we will discuss the annotations in class.

Wednesday, September 29

• Charlotte Smith, Desmond, 45-144
  • Brent Raycroft's Smith page

Group IV Response: open response.

Monday, October 4

• Smith, Desmond, 144-312

Group I Response: open response.

Wednesday, October 6

• Smith, Desmond, 312-414

Group II Response: Open response.

Monday, October 11

For today, each of you will choose a critical text (we'll divide these into categories in advance to prevent duplication) and come to class ready to report on and discuss that text.

Wednesday, October 13

• Selections of gothic fiction (handout)

• Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 29-74
  • The (sometimes alarmingly) detailed page on this novel from Pemberley.com

No responses today because of the looming paper deadline

FIRST PAPER DUE
BEFORE FALL BREAK

Monday, October 25

• Austen, Northanger Abbey, 74-240

Group III Response: open response

Wednesday, October 27

• Marilyn Butler, from Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (reserve)

• Claudia L. Johnson, from Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel

Group IV Response: open response

Friday, October 29: Special Session

• Deidre Shauna Lynch, from The Economy of Character: Novels, Market Culture, and the Business of Inner Meaning

Come to class prepared to discuss Lynch's work with Lynch herself.

Monday, November 1

• Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond, 37-109
  • Paul Reuben's bibliography

Group I Response: open response

Wednesday, November 3

• Brown, Ormond, 109-204

Group II Response: open response

Monday, November 8

• Brown, Ormond, 204-276

• Julia Stern, "A Lady Who Sheds No Tears: Liberty, Contagion, and the Demise of Fraternity in Ormond." In The Plight of Feeling: Sympathy and Dissent in the Early American Novel (reserve).

Wednesday, November 10

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE
IN CLASS TODAY

Library day! Details TBA.

Monday, November 15

• Wordsworth, "The Old Cumberland Beggar" (Major Works 49), "Simon Lee, The Old Huntsman" (85), "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" (131), "Michael" (224), and Preface to Lyrical Ballads (595)
  • The Romantic Circles/Cambridge University Press scholarly electronic edition of Lyrical Ballads

  • The Lyrical Ballads Bicentenary Project

  • A special issue of Romanticism on the Net: Lyrical Ballads, 1798-1998

Wednesday, November 17

• Wordsworth, The Prelude (Books 1 ands 2, 1805 version, Major Works 375)
  • Laura Mandell's handout and bibliography on The Prelude

Group I Response: open response

Monday, November 22

Each of you will report on one critical source concerning Wordsworth in class today, and those reports will be the basis of our discussion.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE BY 5:00
ON TUESDAY

Monday, November 29

• Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple

Group II Response: open response

Wednesday, December 1

• Elizabeth Hamilton, Translations of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, 54-107
  • Claire Grogan, "Crossing Genre, Gender and Race in Elizabeth Hamilton's Translation of The Letters of a Hindoo Rajah," Studies in the Novel (subscription only)

Group III Response: open response

Monday, December 6

PROGRESS REPORT DUE TODAY BY EMAIL

• Elizabeth Hamilton, Translations of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, 108-243

No responses: work on those papers, and come to class with comments as usual.

Wednesday, December 8

• Elizabeth Hamilton, Translations of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, 244-308

Wednesday, December 15

FINAL PAPER DUE BY NOON