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SCHEDULE of READINGS
Romantic Genders
English 232, Spring 2006
Dr. Katherine D. Harris
Syllabus subject to change

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Legend of Symbols, etc.
online = print from online course schedule
► = definitely read for discussion
Secondary = print from online course schedule
page numbers = in Mellor & Matlak
handout = given in class

 

January  |  February  March  |  April  May

  Presentation & Short Essay  |  Final Essay

January

26

Introductions to Class
Timeline for Romanticism (see Mellor & Matlak and online
Chronology of Events) -- over 1200 significant events
Pre-Romantic History - Lecture Notes
Anne Mellor, "Introduction: Romanticism, Gender & Genre" Romanticism & Gender (handout) (password protected)
Feminine & Masculine Romanticism (handout)
Rachel Donadio, "Keeper of the Canon," New York Times Book Review (Jan 8 2006)
Harold Bloom's Romantic Reading List from The Western Canon (discussed in class)

Register for NASSR Listserv & Course Listserv


Recommended

Marilyn Gaull, English Romanticism (refer when necessary)
Abrams, Glossary of Literary Terms (refer when necessary)
David Perkins, "The English Construction of Romantic Poetry." Is Literary History Possible? Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1993. (online)
Buy Anne Mellor's Romanticism & Gender
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells and Bookfinder
 

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February

2

Romantic Beginnings: Beauty, Nature & the Sublime
French Revolution and Rights of Man (9-12)
Burke, Reflections on Revolution in France (13), "A Philosophical Enquiry Into . . . the Sublime" (134)
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of Rights of Man (20)
Paine, Rights of Man (25)
British Newspaper Coverage of the French Revolution (online)

Secondary
Mellor, Anne. "Domesticating the Sublime." Romanticism and Gender. NY: Routledge, 1993. 85-106. (password protected)
Day, Aidan. "Gender and the Sublime." Romanticism. NY: Routledge, 1996. 183-203.
MacCarthy, Fiona. "The First Feminist." New York Review of Books (Dec 1 2005). 55-58.

Recommended
Gaull, English Romanticism, Preface (vii), Chp 1: "People During the Romantic Age" (3), Chp. 5: "Poets and a Gallery of �Sophisters, Economists, and Calculators�" (109)
"Sublime." Abram's Glossary of Literary Terms (8th ed.) 316.
 

9

Sublime Rights of the "Other"
Polwhele, "The Unsex�d Females" (42), "A Young Lady Playing at Chess" (online)
Barbauld, "The Rights of Woman" (186), Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (181)
Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman "To M. Talleyrand" (371)
Godwin, Memoirs (also see contemporary reactions at back of text)
Hazlitt, "Table Talk" (150)

Secondary
Elfenbein, Andrew. "Mary Wollstonecraft and the Sexuality of Genius." The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. Ed. Claudia L. Johnson. Cambridge UP, 2002. 228-245.
Trott, Nicola. "Sexing the Critic: Mary Wollstonecraft at the Turn of the Century." 1798, The Year of the �Lyrical Ballads.� Ed. Richard Cronin. NY: St. Martin�s, 1998. 32-67.
Mellor, Anne. "A Criticism of Their Own: Romantic Women Literary Critics." Questioning Romanticism. Ed. John Beer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995. 29-48.
Curran, Stuart. "Women Readers, Women Writers." The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism. Cambridge UP, 1993. 177-195.
 

16

Education & Sensibility: A Woman�s Place
Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
Barbauld, "On Novel-Writing" (171)

Secondary

Ford, Susan Allen. "�A name more dear�: Daughters, Fathers and Desire in A Simple Story, the False Friend and Mathilda. Re-Visioning Romanticism. Eds. Carol Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner. Philadelphia: U Penn P, 1994. 51-71.
Sha, Richard C. "'Keeping Them Out of Harm's Way': Sketching, Female Accomplishments, and the Shaping of Gender in Britain." The Visual and Verbal Sketch in British Romanticism. Philadelphia: U Penn P, 1998. 73-104.

Recommended
A Dictionary of Sensibility
(online)
Music from an Inchbald play (online)
Anonymous Review of A Simple Story in The Analytical Review (May 1791) (online)
Abrams on "Sensibility" (291) & "Sentimentalism" (293)

Student Presentations:
1) Lisa Kim, Ford article with A Simple StoryDiscussion Questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
2) Jane Kim, Sha article with A Simple Story: Discussion Questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

23

"High" Romanticism: Wordsworth & Coleridge
Hazlitt, "Lectures on English Poets" (149)
Table of Contents from Lyrical Ballads (handout)
Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (573), "We Are Seven" (566), Lyrical Ballads, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (571) "Song" (582), "Lucy Gray" (583), "The World is Too Much with Us" (596)
Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (735),
Rime of the Ancient Mariner song by Iron Maiden (requires media player)
Versions of Lyrical Ballads (online):  (1) Lyrical Ballads, Renascence Editions, (2) Lyrical Ballads: A Concordance, (3) Lyrical Ballads: An Electronic Scholarly Edition
Robinson, Sappho & Phaon (320)

Secondary
Mellor, Anne. "Gender in Masculine Romanticism." Romanticism and Gender. NY: Routledge, 1993. 17-30(buy a copy of this book before today; or see library reserve)
Hoagwood, Terence and Kathryn Ledbetter. "Scholarly Fantasy and Material Reality in Mary Robinson�s Sappho and Phaon." �Coloured Shadows�: Contexts in Publishing, Printing and Reading Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers. NY: Palgrave, 2005. 19-31.
Ross, Marlon B. "Romantic Quest and Conquest: Troping Masculine Power in the Crisis of Poetic Identity." Romanticism and Feminism. Ed. Anne Mellor. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 26-51.
Sonmez, M. J-M. "Archaisms in �The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Cardiff Corvey 9 (Dec 2002).

Recommended
Gaull, English Romanticism, Chp. 11: "The Poetry of Life" (289)
Abrams, Romantic definition within Neoclassicism (185) & "Blank Verse" (25)

Student Presentations:
1)
Katie, Ross article, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey":  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
2) Paul, Sonmez article with "Rime":  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

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March

2

Landscape: Pastoral vs. Urban
Wollstonecraft, Letters Written: Advertisement, Letters 1-5 (online)
W. Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (601), "London" (599)
D. Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journals (663-667), "Thoughts on my Sick-Bed" (669)
Robinson, "The Haunted Beach" (323), "A London Summer Morning" (347)
P. Shelley, "Sonnet: England in 1819" (1166)
Blake, "London" (302)
Smith, Beachy Head (244; especially ll672-731)
Literary Landscapes (online)
A Picture of Britain, a Tate Museum exhibit of landscape artists from over 300 years
London Index images of 19th-Century London (online)

Secondary
Neighbors, Beth Ann. "The Frustrated Landscapes of Charlotte Smith & William Wordsworth." Prometheus Unplugged?
Woof, Pamela. "Dorothy Wordsworth: Story-teller." The Wordsworth Circle 34:2 (Spring 2003). 103-110.
Heinzelman, Kurt. "The Cult of Domesticity: Dorothy and William Wordsworth at Grasmere." Romanticism and Feminism. Ed. Anne Mellor. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 52-78.

Student Presentations:
1)
Chris, Neighbors article with Charlotte Smith: Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
2) Tara, Woof article with Dorothy Wordsworth:  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

9

William Blake: Outside the Romantic Tradition(?)
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
(294), The Book of Thel (284)
Songs of Innocence
: "Introduction" (277), "The Lamb" (278), "The Chimney Sweeper" (279), "Little Black Boy" (278)
Songs of Experience:
"Introduction" (299), "The Tyger" (301), "The Chimney Sweeper" (300), "The Sick Rose" (300), "Infant Sorrow" (303)
The Blake Archive
(see all accompanying plates here online)
Holy Soul Jelly Roll by Allen Ginsberg (listen in-class; on course reserve)

Secondary
Mellor, Anne and John Bender. "Liberating the Sister Arts: The Revolution of Blake�s �Infant Sorrow.�" ELH 50:2 (Summer 1983). 297-319.
Goslee, Nancy Moore. "Slavery and Sexual Character: Questioning the Master Trope in Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion." ELH 57:1 (Spring 1990). 101-128.

Recommended
Gaull, English Romanticism, Chp. 7: "Inventing the Past" (175), Chp. 12: "Painting and the Other Visual Arts" (322)
Recently found (2001) Blake watercolors (NYT 2/16/06): Image 1 & Image 2 -- on sale at Sotheby's!!!
Fuseli's "The Nightmare" (1782) painting , NYTimes article -- similar to Blake's Gothicism
Gothic Exhibition at the Tate Britain (until May 1, 2006)
Fuseli Article from the Tate Exhibition Catalog

Portrait of William Blake from the National Portrait Gallery, London
Blake Exhibit at the Tate Britain Museum
William Blake Online, a learning exhibit by the Tate Britain Museum

Student Presentations:
1) 
Julie Meloni, Goslee article with Blake's VisionsDiscussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
2) Meghan Kirkpatrick, Mellor/Bender article with Blake's "Infant Sorrow":  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

16

Poetic Forms: Women Skirting the Romantic Tradition
Charlotte Smith, "Partial Muse" (227), "Unhappy Exile" (227), "To Fancy" (228), "To the Muse" (229)
W. Wordsworth, "Scorn Not the Sonnet" (online)
Barbauld, "On a Lady's Writing" (167), "Washing-Day" (187), Women & Penmanship (RC Poem Web)
Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" (729), "Xanadu" in Oxford English Dictionary
Modern References to Xanadu (online): Rush Lyrics, "Kubla Khan" in Wikipedia, "Xanadu" Movie, Sample songs from "Xanadu" movie, Xanadu Google search,
Xanadu Gallery
Robinson, "To the Poet Coleridge" (352)
Landon, "The Enchanted Island" (Handout)

Secondary
Mellor, Anne K. "Were Women Writers �Romantics�?" Modern Language Quarterly 62:4 (Dec 2001). 393-405.
Curran, Stuart. "The I Altered." Romanticism and Feminism. Ed. Anne Mellor. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 185-207.
Romantic-Era Poetic Forms (Handout)

Recommended
Abrams on "Sonnet" (299)

Student Presentations:
1)
Jennifer, Mellor article, Barbauld's "Washing Day":  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

23

Paper Proposals / First Drafts &Annotated Bibliography Due (Email)
No Class Meeting

30

Spring Break � No Meeting

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April

   

6

Hushed Voices: Slavery & the Working Class
Maria Edgeworth, Belinda
Cowper, "The Negro's Complaint" (62)
Equiano, An Interesting Narrative (192)
More, Cheap Repository Tracts (216)
Images of Race & Working Class (PowerPoint in class)

Secondary
Greenfield, Susan C. "�Abroad and at Home�: Sexual Ambiguity, Miscegenation, and Colonial Boundaries in Edgeworth�s Belinda." PMLA 112:2 (March 1997). 214.228.
Mellor, Anne. "The Rational Woman." Romanticism and Gender. NY: Routledge, 1993. (use your copy of the text)
Mellor, Anne. "�Am I Not a Woman, and a Sister?� Slavery, Romanticism and Gender." Romanticism, Race and Imperial Culture, 1780-1834. Eds. Alan Richardson and Sonia Hofkosh. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996. (311-329).

Recommended
Gaull, English Romanticism, Chp. 3: "Children�s Literature and Education" (50)

Writing Tips:
What is an effective topic (content) and a good proposal (writing)? See an example

13

Becoming More than "Nature"
Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (745) & "The Eolian Harp" (760), The Aeolian Harp images (online)
W. Wordsworth, "The Ruined Cottage" (Romantic Audience Project online); revisit "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"
Landon, "Erinna" (1381)
P. Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (1167), "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (1065), "Ozymandias" (1066), Shelley, Wordsworth & the Byronic Hero (online)
Smith, "Ozymandias" (online)

Recommended
Abrams, "Fancy & Imagination" (92)

20

Keats & Landon in Concert
Lockhart, "Cockney School" (159)
Keats, Letters to George & Thomas Keats (1262), Letter to J.H. Reynolds (1263), "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1297), New Yorker Cartoon (online), "Ode to a Nightingale" (1296), "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (1278)
Landon, "The Proud Ladye" (1379), "I Wrote My Name Upon the Sand" (online), revisit "The Enchanted Island" (online)

Secondary

Wolfson, Susan. "Keats and the Manhood of the Poet." European Romantic Review 6 (Summer 1995). 1-37.
Mellor, Anne. "Ideological Cross-Dressing: John Keats/Emily Bront�." Romanticism and Gender. NY: Routledge, 1993. 171-208. (use your copy of the text)
Swann, Karen. "Harassing the Muse." Romanticism and Feminism. Ed. Anne Mellor. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 81-92.

Recommended
Abrams, "Negative Capability" (182)

27

Fetishizing Beauty in Popular Culture
British Literary Annuals: Forget Me Not, Keepsake, Fisher�s Drawing Room Scrapbook, Literary Souvenir, Comic Annual (review actual texts in class)
American Literary Annuals:  The Token, The Atlantic Souvenir
Polwhele, "A Young Lady Playing at Chess" (online) -- revisit
Hemans, "The Mother and Child" (online)
"A Most Beautiful Engraving" (online)
Forget Me Not Archive
(Poetess Archive online) -- poke around
Bijou for 1828
(Poetess Archive online) -- poke around
Keepsake for 1829
(Romantic Circles online) -- poke around


Note
: Albums, Pocketbooks & Female Genitalia

Secondary
Harris, Katherine D. "Feminizing the Textual Body: Women and their Literary Annuals in Nineteenth-Century Britain." PBSA 99:4 (Dec. 2005). 573-622.
Definitions of "literary annual," "giftbook" and "album." The Poetess Archive
Mellor, Anne. "Exhausting the Beautiful." Romanticism and Gender. NY: Routledge, 1993. 107-143. (use your copy of the text)
Hoagwood, Terence and Kathryn Ledbetter. "Scandal as Commodity and the �Calumniated Woman.�" �Coloured Shadows�: Contexts in Publishing, Printing and Reading Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers. NY: Palgrave, 2005. 47-73.
Reiss, Daniel. "Landon and the Dawn of Post-English Romanticism." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 36:4 (Autumn 1996). 807-827.
Tucker, Herbert F. "House Arrest: the Domestication of English Poetry in the 1820s." New Literary History 25:3 (Summer 1994). 521-548.

Recommended
Gaull, English Romanticism, "The Literary Marketplace," Chp. 2 (12)
March, Rosemary. "The Page Affair: Lady Caroline Lamb's Literary Cross-Dressing." CARO: Lady Caroline Lamb Website. Ed. Paul Douglass. [on commonplace books]

Student Presentations:
1)
Dawn Nelson, Mellor article with "A Most Beautiful Engraving" & an online annual:  Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
2) Jordan Klebig, Tucker article, online annuals: Discussion questions & Annotated Bibliographic Entry
 

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May

   

4

Evaluating Beauty & British-ness
Byron, "She Walks in Beauty" (online), "Prometheus" (920), Dedication to Don Juan (1047), Don Juan Cantos I-IV, IX, XIII (each begins on the following pages: 954, 980, 999, 1010, 1018, 1022), Byronic Images (online), Byron's melodies "She Walks in Beauty" (listen online), Hood's Comic Annual Parody (online)
Hemans, "Casabianca" (1227), "Evening Prayer" (1227 � see accompanying image online from 1826 Forget Me Not), "Woman & Fame" (1247), "Brigand Leader & His Wife" & image (online), Records of Woman (1828 � all poems), The Sceptic: A Hemans Byron Dialogue (poke around this Romantic Circles online edition)
Landon, "Felicia Hemans" (1401)

Secondary
Wolfson, Susan J. "�Their She Condition�: Cross-Dressing and the Politics of Gender in Don Juan." ELH 54:3 (Autumn 1987). 585-617.
Ross, Marlon. "Records of Women: Inscribing Feminine Desire in the Poetics of Affection." The Contours of Masculine Desire: Romanticism and the Rise of Women�s Poetry. NY: Oxford, 1989. 267-316.
Wolfson, Susan. "�Domestic Affections� and �the spear of Minerva�: Felicia Hemans and the Dilemma of Gender." Re-Visioning Romanticism. Eds. Carol Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner. Philadelphia: U Penn P, 1994. 128-166.
Barton, Anne. "The Romantic Survivor." New York Review of Books. (Dec 15, 2005).
 

   

Visit Sublime CA Landscape!
5/7 (Sun) 2-6pm Garden Party
Tor House, (near) Big Sur

11

Class Cancelled

Who Gets the Last Word?
Mary Shelley, The Last Man
Romantic Circles
Electronic Edition (online) -- poke around
Contemporary Reviews of The Last Man (online)
Haydn�s Music, inspiration for The Last Man (online)

Secondary
Albright, Richard S. "'In the mean time, what did Perdita?': Rhythms and Reversals in Mary Shelley's The Last Man." Romanticism On the Net 13 (February 1999).
Scheutz, Julie. "Mary Shelly' s The Last Man: Monstrous Worlds, Domestic Communities, and Masculine Romantic Ideology." Prometheus Unplugged?
Eberle-Sinatra, Michael. "Gender, Authorship and Male Domination: Mary Shelley�s Limited Freedom in Frankenstein and The Last Man. Mary Shelley�s Fictions: From Frankenstein to Falkner. Ed. Michael Eberle-Sinatra. NY: St. Martin�s Press/Palgrave, 2000. 95-108.
Crook, Nora. Review of The Last Man Broadview Edition. Romanticism on the Net 11 (August 1998).
 

18

(Final Exam 5:15-7:30pm)
Final Essay Due
NASSR Post
Due
Circulate Abstracts
Movies about the Romantics or Romantic Era (handout) -- shall we watch one?
Pop Culture References to Romantic Literature (Romantic Circles online)
Fictional Representations of Romantics & Romanticism (Romantic Circles online)
Transition to the Victorians (handout)

Panel: Connecting the Romantics -- Pre & Post
Speakers:  Prof. Andy Fleck (Milton as Precursor) & Prof. Alan Soldofsky (Beat Poets as Modern Inheritors)
 

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Last updated: 05/08/2006 10:58 AM
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