In this course, we will read
and discuss some familiar works as well as works you may never have heard of
from the period 1789-1832. Topics will
include the growing interest in the reproduction of dialects (Burns, Edgeworth),
representations and constructions of sexuality (Byron, Percy Shelley, Jane
Austen), close observation of nature
and of the ‘language of common men [and women]’ (the Wordsworths), and attempts
to make new myths for a new age (Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Byron). We will also look at Blake’s efforts to merge
the verbal and the visual, especially in Songs of Innocence and of
Experience and The First Book of Urizen. Students will write and
revise two short papers about the literature, write a paper based upon an
interpretation of a movie from a list I will provide, give an oral presentation
on a topic pertinent to the age (such as ‘body snatchers’, the madness of King
George III, the Cholera epidemic), engage in peer evaluations, and take a final
examination. The material is in the public domain, and may be downloaded for
free from sites such as The Gutenberg Project.