This course will serve as a general introduction to Romanticism in British literature between 1765 and 1830. It will focus on two particular literary responses to the Enlightenment: the emergence of Gothic fiction and the Romantic cult of Nature. Please expect to read four novels as well as healthy amounts of poetry and nonfiction prose.
Learning objectives for this course will include the following:
To gain a deeper insight into and appreciation for English literary and cultural expression of the Romantic age, including fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
To understand some of the politics and technologies that facilitated literary production during the Romantic period.
To better appreciate the importance of national and transnational contexts for literary and cultural works.
To be able to produce a historically nuanced close reading (explication de texte) of a given literary object.
To enhance analytical, interpretative, and argumentative skills for discussing and writing about cultural objects.