steven bruhm, department of english, mount st. vincent university, halifax, canada. B3M 2J6. Steven.Bruhm@msvu.ca

 

English 3307 (Fall 2007)

Romanticism and the Gothic

Steven Bruhm

Seton 514

457.6179

T/Th 3:05-4:20 p.m.

Seton 529

Romantic literature, despite the promises of its title, is a literature of panic. In this course we will study the responses at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century to perceived threats of privacy and invasions of space, particularly as a response to the French Revolution. Of central concern will be the human subject's relation to nature, the family, political responsibility, self-control, and gender identity; and governing all of these issues will be the mediating force of language, how the Romantics shaped it, and how it shaped the Romantics. We will look at the mutual fashioning of language and the self across a variety of genres and modes, including poetry, novels, political tracts, plays, journal entries, and letters, and we will emphasize the differences in perception that gender helped to formulate. We will highlight one crucial difference in perception, that which has come to be called the Gothic, as a challenge to Romantic optimism.

Required Texts (available at MSVU Bookstore):

Evaluation Scheme

 
Electronic Conference* 25%
Short Paper (5-7 pp.) 15%
Term Paper (10-15 pp.) 30% 
Final Examination 30%
 

* Note: This course requires that you use electronic mail. The university provides you with an account and free access to university computers.

 

As is always the case at this university, correct use of language is one of the criteria included in the evaluation of all written assignments.

"Students are reminded that the University regulations on Plagiarism and Cheating will be strictly enforced. These regulations are posted on departmental bulletin boards and information may also be available from your professor." (Senate, March 1986)

 

Syllabus
Sept. 6 Mickey Mouse at the Revolution
11 William Wordsworth, “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”; “’Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known’”; “Song [She dwelt among th’ untrodden ways]”; “’A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’”
13 Wordsworth, "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"
18 Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Books 5-6
20 Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Books 7-8
25 Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France; Thomas Paine, from The Rights of Man
27 Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Books 9-10
Oct. 2 Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Books 13-14 (handout)
4 Painting Romanticism: see websites listed below
9 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Kahn: or, A Vision in a Dream"; "The Pains of Sleep"
11 Coleridge, "Frost At Midnight"; "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison"
16 Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (p. 694)
18 Coleridge, Christabel
23 Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
25 Wollstonecraft, from Vindication; William Godwin, from Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
30 William Blake, from A Vision of Last Judgment; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Nov. 1 Blake, Songs of Innocence
6 Blake, The Book of Thel
8
Blake, Songs of Experience
13 Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion
15 Romantic Music: Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique
20 Matthew Lewis, The Monk
22 Lewis, The Monk
27 Lewis, The Monk
29

Lewis, The Monk; Exam Review

 

Painting Romanticism (assignment for October 4):

JMW Turner paintings: http://www.abcgallery.com/T/turner/turner.html
Fisherman at Sea
London
Crossing the Brook


Eugene Delacroix paintings: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/delacroix/
Andromeda
The Death of Sardanapalus


Francisco de Goya paintings: http://w1.866.telia.com/~u86604462/artists/goya.html
The Incantation
The Shootings of May 3 1808


Henry Fuseli paintings: http://www.artunframed.com/henry_fuseli.htm  http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/gothicnightmares/infocus/nightmare.htm
The Nightmare  (Please note that I've linked two versions of The Nightmare.  Please view both.)


Jacques-Louis David paintings: http://www.artunframed.com/jacques-LouisDavid.htm
The Sabine Women
Napoleon Crossing the Saint Bernard

Teaching

 

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