Syllabus for English 327
(The Romantics):
Romanticism and War, Fall 2006

Monday, August 28

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) list of readings is required, while the second (more indented) list of readings is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the first three bullet points include required readings, while the two sites linked in the following, more indented bullet points send you to materials that are recommended for exploration but are not required.

• Helen Maria Williams, from Letters Written in France ... and Letters from France (1792-)

• Hannah More, Slavery: A Poem (1788)

• More, Village Politics (1792)
  • Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution

  • Brycchan Carey's fine site on Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation

We will go over the syllabus and course policies first, then discuss today's readings. Please come to class well prepared for that discussion.

Your written assignment is simple: go to the course discussion board on Pioneer Web. (Click on the course name, then choose "Communication" on the left, then choose "Discussion Board.") In the appropriate forum--you'll see it--post a brief self-introduction. This will help us get to know each other and also confirm that everyone can post on the board.

• Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

• Thomas Paine, from The Rights of Man (1791)

• Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790; here is a summary of the whole)

• William Godwin, from An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (also known simply as Political Justice, 1793)
  • Elizabeth Braverman's project for The Transatlantic 1790s (a group MAP project from summer 2004): Conversations in Politics: Paine and His Contemporaries on Democracy, Religion, and the Rights of Man

  • And Sara Millhouse's project: Loyalists: Spies, defense from sedition, and the "swinish multitudes"

Group 1 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.

• William Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793)

• Blake, Europe: A Prophecy (1794)
  • The links above lead to The William Blake Archive, which includes a biography and much other information about Blake.

  • Betsey Blanche's 1790s project: Revolutionary Nuptials

Group 2 response: Using any moment or passage from Group 1's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Wednesday into the readings for today.

• Charlotte Smith, Desmond (1792), 45-144
  • Brent Raycroft's Smith page

  • Elisa Lenssen's 1790s project will help you see the presence and meaning of the language of physiognomy in Smith's novel: Everybody Matters: Science and the Corporeal in 1790s Literature

Group 3 response: help us make the transition from our previous readings to this novel by connecting one short passage from any text we've already read to one short passage in Desmond. Explain why this connection caught your attention and why you want to call it to ours.

• Smith, Desmond, 144-312
  • Justin Wallace's 1790s project on the gothic helps explain what we're seeing in Geraldine's marriage: Gothic Narratives: An Examination of Narrative Convention in Three Gothic Novels

Group 1 response: open response.

• Smith, Desmond, 312-414

Group 2 response: open response.

• Mary A. Favret, from Romantic Correspondence: Women, Politics, and the Fiction of Letters (1993)

• Katherine Binhammer, "Revolutionary Domesticity in Charlotte Smith's Desmond" (1999)

Group 3 response: open response.

• William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800/1802)

• Wordsworth, "Michael: A Pastoral Poem" (1800)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (Grinnell only): Wordsworth as poet and prose writer

  • The Lyrical Ballads Bicentenary Project is an excellent scholarly site. A lot of Wordsworthian information of varying quality dots the Internet; the best and most authoritative starting point is probably the Wordsworth section of the Voice of the Shuttle Romanticism page.

  • There is a new electronic scholarly edition of Lyrical Ballads produced by Romantic Circles and Cambridge University Press. The project is on the cutting edge of digital textual scholarship.

Group 1 response: open response.

• Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805 version), Books I-II and VIII-XIII

Group 2 response: open response.

• Wordsworth criticism--see the assignment below.

Each of you will choose a scholarly article or book that concerns Wordsworth's writings, especially those we have read together. You will come to class prepared to give the class a quick overview of the critical author's argument. In preparing your comments, have your later research papers in mind: for what kind of paper would your source be especially useful?

• George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I and II (1812)

• Philip W. Martin, Heroism and History: Childe Harold I and II and the Tales" (2004)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (Grinnell only): Byron as poet

  • The Life and Work of Lord Byron on englishhistory.net provides good basic information. Aside from that site, there is remarkably little useful online material about Byron.

Group 3 response: open response.

• Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV (1818)

• Malcolm Kelsall, "Byron's Politics" (2004)

Group 1 response: Today's readings pair Kelsall's general analysis of Byron's politics with a specific imaginative work, the last canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Discuss how some specific aspect of the poetry supports or complicates what Kelsall says about Byron's political beliefs.

• George Gordon, Lord Byron, The Giaour (1813)

• Marilyn Butler, "The Orientalism of Byron's Giaour" (1988)

Group 2 response: open response.

• Walter Scott, Waverley (1814), 33-99
  • The Walter Scott Digital Archive from the University of Edinburgh contains or links to all the major Scott resources on the internet.

Group 3 response: Waverley is routinely called the first historical novel. (Some critics dispute that claim, but don't let that trouble you for the moment.) Keeping in mind the idea that Scott is writing more or less a new sort of book, look for ways in which he engages his readers in the process of making sense of its genre. You might consider what explicit statements Scott makes about other genres, the way he creates one or more personae for the "author" in the text, or how he apologizes for certain features of the text.

• Scott, Waverley, 100-195

Group 1 response: open response.

Library day! Details to be announced.

• Scott, Waverley, 195-347

Group 2 response: open response.

• Scott, Waverley, 347-494

Group 3 response: open response.

• Jane Austen, Persuasion (1818), 1-98 (including the Biographical Notice of the Author)
  • For better or worse, there's nothing else quite like The Republic of Pemberley. It explains itself.

Group 1 response: open response.

• Austen, Persuasion, 99-203

• We will also spend some class time discussing annotated bibliographies today.

Group 2 response: open response.

• Austen criticism--see the assignment below.

Each of you will choose a scholarly article or book that concerns Austen's writings, especially Persuasion. You will come to class prepared to give the class a quick overview of the critical author's argument. In preparing your comments, have your later research papers in mind: for what kind of paper would your source be especially useful?

If you are in Group 3, this is your response day, and you should write an annotation of your source as if you were doing it for your annotated bibliography. Your annotations will become the subject of a preparatory annotation workshop in class.

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH AT 5:00

• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (1820)

• Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (1821) [moved below due to class cancellation]

• James Chandler, "History's Lyre: The 'West Wind' and the Poet's Work" (1998/2002)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Shelley as poet and prose writer

  • The Keats-Shelley House is a good starting point for finding the digital Shelley. None of the amateur sites online can capture Shelley as well as his own words in Stuart Curran's e-text of the notes to Queen Mab.

[Response moved due to class cancellation]

• Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (1821)

• Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy (1819)

• Shelley, "England in 1819" (1819)

• Susan Wolfson, "Poetic Form and Political Reform: The Mask of Anarchy and 'England in 1819'" (1997/2002)

Group 1 response: open response.

NO WEDNESDAY CLASS--
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE BY 12:00

• Byron, Don Juan, Dedication and Cantos I and II
  • Because Byron is playing not only with the Don Juan myth but also more recent tales of seduction, you will find profit and pleasure in Sarah Cornwell's Daughters of Misfortune: Anatomy of the 1790s Seduction Novel. This project includes a modern tale of seduction set at Grinnell.

Group 2 response: open response.

• Byron, Don Juan, Cantos III-V

Group 3 response: open response.

PROGRESS REPORT DUE TODAY BY EMAIL

• Byron, Don Juan, Cantos VI-VIII

Group 1 response: open response.

Last day: wrapping up, composing class cheers and slogans for the big finals parade.

FINAL PAPER DUE BY NOON