SoSe 19: PS-Surveying English Literatures II: English Romantic Poetry and Prose
Justus Conrad Gronau
Comments
In this seminar, we will focus on the poetry and prose of British Romanticism and discuss its key concepts such as 'self', 'nature', 'imagination', 'reason', 'emotion', 'soul', 'Negative Capability', 'the beautiful' and 'the sublime'. Next to an analysis of major poems and poetological writings of the so called 'male big six' (William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley), we shall not only take a look at important female Romantic poets of the time (e.g., Charlotte Smith, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Felicia Hemans), but also study Mary Shelley's famous gothic novel Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus. How does Romanticism react and set itself apart from the preceding period called Neoclassicism? How reliable are periodisations and canon formations? How is female Romanticism different from its male counterpart? Why is poetry "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth)? Why is "Beauty […] truth, truth beauty” (Keats)? Are Romantic ideas still prevalent today? We will deal with these and more questions in order to understand Romantic aesthetics and modes of thinking.
Students need to acquire (and read) Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus (suggested edition used in class: Norton Critical Edition, ISBN: 9780393927931). Further course material will be made available at the beginning of the semester.
close14 Class schedule
Regular appointments