ENGL 330 A: British Romanticism from a Global Perspective
This course surveys primarily British literature from approximately 1787 to the 1830s – that is, from the French and Haitian Revolutions to the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign – including the literary and intellectual trends of Romanticism in European and imperial context. The course will zoom out to frame Romanticism in a worldwide context by considering its relationships to imperialism and chattel slavery, as well as writers who were not counted in the “canon” of the period until recently (taking a "Bigger 6" perspective). We will consider aesthetic issues of form and genre, topics of enduring importance such as gender and race, and the ambiguities of the reception of British Romanticism by readers of color and Indigenous readers.
Authors and texts will include Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, William Blake, Olaudah Equiano, Felicia Hemans, John Keats, Egbert Martin, Mary Prince, Jane Schoolcraft, Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Percy Shelley, Charlotte Smith, William Wordsworth.
Evaluation by participation and discussion, close reading essays, and an in-class final exam.