Brief description
Explores a range of Romantic and Victorian writing, in its relationship to social history.

This module on Romantic and Victorian literature does not attempt to survey the whole of the extraordinary output of this the first information age, but instead seeks to introduce students to some of the range and diversity of writing in Britain from the period of the French revolution through to the fin de siecle. The lecture and seminar programme will situate this dynamic body of writing in the various contexts of its production: political radicalism, electoral reform, industrialization, consumerism, urbanization, imperial expansion, and the changing role of women in society.

Texts and Topics

1. Romanticism and Romantic poetry: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads; Keats, the Odes, ‘Eve of St Agnes’, ‘Isabella’; a selection of Romantic poetry by women writers.
2. Romantic autobiography: Thomas De Quincy, Confessions of an English Opium Eater
3. The continued rise of the woman novelist: Jane Austen, Persuasion
4. Victorian poetry: Tennyson, Maud; the dramatic monologue; poetry by women
5. Victorian fiction: Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son
6. Fiction at the fin de siecle: the rise of the short story

Lectures and seminars

Lectures: This module will have three lectures per week. Some lectures in each of the six blocks outlined above will focus on the key texts, others will use the key texts as the focus for the consideration of broader contextual issues. Weekly seminars: will focus on the key texts

Key Texts

Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, Keats, the Odes, ‘Eve of St Agnes’, ‘Isabella’, a selection of Romantic poetry by women writers. All available in M H Abrams, Stephen Greenblatt et al (eds.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2 (2000); Jane Austen, Persuasion; Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater; Tennyson, Maud (in the Penguin or World’s classics edition of Tennyson’s poems)
Other Victorian poetry studied will be taken from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2.
Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son Harold Orel, (ed.) Victorian Short Stories 2 (Dent,1990)

Learning outcomes
On the completion of this module students will typically be able to:
demonstrate a detailed knowledge of a range of texts drawn from the period 1789-1900;
articulate this knowledge in the form of a reasoned critical analysis of particular texts;
locate the texts studied in appropriate literary, historical, and/or cultural contexts;
explain and engage with relevant aspects of recent scholarly and/or critical debates about the texts studied.