Module ENGL3061: LITERATURE OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Department: English Studies

ENGL3061: LITERATURE OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Prerequisites

• At least one of the following modules: Introduction to the Novel (ENGL1061), Introduction to Drama (ENGL1011), Introduction to Poetry (ENGL1071).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To introduce students, via lectures, to the work of a wide range of authors of the Romantic Period and to key intellectual and historical contexts. To promote an appreciation of the influences on and the afterlives of Romanticism.
• In tutorials and formative essays, to foster a close understanding of selected texts and an advanced awareness of the relationships between them, demonstrable in mature and lucid critical analysis.

Content

• The module will include lectures that establish a framework in which the literature of the Romantic period can be studied at an advanced level.
• Students will be alerted to current critical debates concerning the definition of 'Romanticism' as a literary concept, and will develop a mature understanding of the major intellectual and political upheavals of the period, notably the French Revolution.
• The rest of the module will be made up of lectures and tutorials on a coherent selection of texts chosen to reflect the generic diversity of Romantic literature.
• Examples of works to be covered include collections of poems such as Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.
• Long poems to be covered may include Wordsworth's The Prelude, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, and Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan, together with a wide selection of shorter poems (ode, lyric and 'conversational' forms) by Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Clare, and women poets such as Smith, Hemans and Landon.
• The module will also study a broad range of prose works.
• It may include political prose by authors such as William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, together with novels by Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and examples of Gothic fiction.
• Important and influential works of Romantic criticism, such as Coleridge's Biographia Literaria and Shelley's A Defence of Poetry, will also be addressed at an advanced level.
• Students will be encouraged to reflect critically on key ideas that underpin and are debated in the literature of the Romantic Period. These may include: nature, rural landscapes and cityscapes; vision and the imagination; the self and subjectivity; reason and emotion; education and experience; time and posterity.
• Students will be encouraged to make advanced connections between different authors within and beyond the Romantic Period, and to situate individual works in their wider literary, intellectual and historical context.
• The module will foster an appreciation of the influences on and afterlives of Romanticism. Students will be encouraged to explore the legacies of Romanticism and to reflect critically on the persistence and permutations of its presence in post-Romantic literature, thought and culture.

Learning Outcomes

• To be able to demonstrate detailed and interconnected knowledge and understanding of a substantial range of texts from the Romantic Period.
• Appreciation of the power of imagination in literary creation as it relates to the Romantic Period and relevant pre- and post-Romantic texts.
• Knowledge of linguistic, literary, cultural and socio-historical contexts in which literature of the Romantic Period was written.
• Knowledge of useful and precise critical terminology to engage with and interpret texts from the Romantic Period.
• Awareness of the range and variety of approaches to writings of the Romantic Period.

• Students studying this module will develop:
• advanced critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts, authors, and critical approaches within this literary period, and to make connections with authors of other literary periods
• control of critical analysis, including the ability to assess other critical readings
• an informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and an ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts relating to this literary period and to selected pre- and post-Romantic texts
• a mature understanding of Romanticism in relation to the Romantic Period and as it relates to earlier and later literary periods
• a sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to this literary period
• skills of effective communication and argument
• a command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• an awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed, debated and transmitted

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an advanced capacity to analyse critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a mature capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• advanced skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organisation and time-management skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures: enable students to gain subject-specific knowledge of cultural, aesthetic and intellectual issues in relation to individual works and authors, an area or period, or a theoretical or language-related topic; encourage students to be aware of the range and variety of approaches to literary study; present ideas and information to encourage, on the part of students, further thought and discussion
• Tutorials: enable students to explore, in a selective way, through small-group discussion, specific texts and topics (many of which will be addressed by lectures); to focus on selected literary issues and problems; and guide them in developing subject-specific analytical skills and knowledge
• Formative essays: are written on a text or texts, or a literary topic, and they require the student to demonstrate appropriate subject-specific knowledge and skills, such as the ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary study. Written feedback is offered on all formative work. The first essay is carefully marked and returned to students individually in one 15-minute handback session. Formative essays allow for students to explore and try out without risk different approaches to and perspectives on literary texts; both essays are useful for revision purposes. A considerable element of choice of essay topics encourages development in students of their capacity for independent thought and judgement.
• Essay handback: encourages students to reflect critically and independently on their work and to engage with the feedback provided.
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for lectures and tutorials provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Examination: tests the student's ability to present subject-specific knowledge, to select appropriate materials, and to construct and manage clear and effective arguments in a timed period; to demonstrate independent thinking, and test that students have achieved stated learning outcomes.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

2 essays 1500-2000 words each. The second essay is optional.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University