Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Practical | 10 x 2hr workshops |
| Seminars / Tutorials | 10 x 2hr seminars |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | 2 Hours ESSAY 1: 3000 WORDS | 50% |
| Semester Assessment | 2 Hours ESSAY 1: 3000 WORDS | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | RESUBMIT FAILED ELEMENTS Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Analyse and evaluate a range of Romantic texts and images in their historical and social context
2. Discuss political, legal and aesthetic issues associated with transgressive writing and visual culture in the Romantic period
3. Apply critical, theoretical and analytical skills to texts and images on this module
Brief description
This module examines erotic texts and images from the Romantic period. Placing these transgressive works in their contemporary late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century contexts, as well as considering them from the perspective of modern theories of gender, sexuality and identity, Romantic Eroticism addresses the following questions: How does Romanticism construct the 'obscene'? What is the political resonance of terms such as 'vulgar' or 'depraved' in literary reviews at this juncture? What is the relationship between the erotic, medical discourse and political satire? To what extent can 'obscene' art be considered an attack on elite culture? What is the literary value of Romantic bawdy? How do these works stand in relation to private and public spheres? How is 'pleasure' constituted by Romantic texts? To what extent can Romantic state surveillance be considered part of the discourse of the political erotic? We will also consider contemporary films, novels and art to ask how our own age draws on and process the politics of Romantic eroticism.
Aims
2. To discuss how significant Romantic challenges to established power were conducted through canonical and non-canonical erotic publications.
3. To build on analytical and theoretical skills developed in Core modules
Content
Seminar 1: Module overview.
Workshop 1: Theoretical approaches
2. 'Political Ravishment': Pornography and Romantic Satire
Seminar 2: Theories of art and obscenity.
Workshop 2: Text and theme
Texts: Prints and sketches by James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake and Henry Fuseli.
3. Women and Erotic Drama: The Chapter of Accidents
Workshop 3: The Romantic stage.
Workshop 3: Text and theme
Texts: Sophia Lee, The Chapter of Accidents (1780)
4. Merry Muses: Romanticism's Banned Books
Seminar 4: Text and theme.
Workshop 4: Romantic legacies
Texts: selections from Robert Burns, The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799)
5. 'A sight to dream of, not to tell': Obscenity and Christabel
Seminar 5: Text and theme.
Workshop 5: Film showing: Julien Temple's Pandaemonium (2000)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'Christabel' (1816); William Hazlitt, review of 'Christabel', Examiner (1816).
6. 'Of Rears and Vices': Jane Austen and Transgression
Seminar 6: Text and theme.
Workshop 6: Film showing: Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park (1999)
Texts: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
7. 'O blush not so!': Keats and Bawdy
Seminar 7: Text and theme.
Workshop 7: Film showing: Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009)
Texts: 'Isabella', 'The Eve of St Agnes', 'Lamia', 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', 'O blush not so!', 'Unfelt, unheard, unseen', 'Upon my life, Sir Nevis, I am piqued'; extracts from Keats's Letters; extracts from reviews of Keats.
8. 'Droop not': Don Juan and Romantic Masculinities
Seminar 8: Text and theme.
Workshop 8: Film showing: Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986)
Texts: Lord Byron, Don Juan (1819-24); extracts from Byron's Letters; extracts from contemporary 19th-century reviews.
9. 'Drive me to distraction': Liber Amoris and the Politics of Obsession
Seminar 9: Text and theme.
Workshop 9: Anne Haverty, The Far Side of A Kiss (2000)
Texts: Hazlitt, Liber Amoris (182); extracts from Hazlitt's Letters; extracts from contemporary 19th-century reviews; Anne Haverty, The Far Side of A Kiss (2000)
10. Conclusion
Seminar 10: Module reflection.
Workshop 10: Romantic legacies, Romantic inheritors
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6