Literary romanticism was born in revolution. Wordsworth was in France in the aftermath of the French revolution, and his partnership with Coleridge in publishing Lyrical Ballads reflects their shared idealism. Many British writers of the Romantic era were imaginatively engaged with countries like France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Greece, Albania, and the Middle East. This course will focus on Orientalist and other works of the period that reflect this fascination with the foreign and alien, or “other,” while surveying significant works of Romantic literature and probing their major themes Those themes include the turn inward toward psychological realism and Kantian psychology, the celebration of the individual with its consequent political liberalism, a validation of Nature as divine communication, recognition of the importance of childhood, and the reinvention of literary forms in light of the speechlessness produced by the writers’ confrontation with the "sublime." Wordsworth’s words are often quoted to illustrate some of these themes, especially that of Divinity as a
. . . presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man —
A motion and a spirit that impels all thinking things. . .
(Tintern Abbey ll. 95-102).
Attending to the canonical male poets, this course will also give substantial consideration to the poetry, drama, and prose of important female writers of the period—including Lady Caroline Lamb—and Romantic writers’ response to Italy.
Please find a PDF of the current syllabus below.