Lahore University of Management Sciences
Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS)
ENGL 2364 The Romantic Imagination: Early 19th- Century British Poetry
Spring Semester (2016-2017)
Instructor
Dr. Saeed Ghazi
Room No.
Room No. 129, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Academic Block
Office Hours
Thursday and Friday 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Email
[email protected]
Telephone
8045
Secretary/TA
2115
TA Office
Hours
TBA
Course URL
(if any)
Course Basics
Credit Hours
4
Lecture(s)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
2
Duration 110 Minutes
1
-Recitation/Lab (per
week)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
Tutorial (per week)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
-Duration
TBA
Duration TBA
Course Distribution
Core
No
Elective
For English majors, minors,
In Group distribution, Out Group distribution, Free Elective
Open for Student
Category
All
Closed for Student
Category
None
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This four unit sophomore level survey course will examine the poetic achievements of the six
canonical poets of the romantic age: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. Their critical achievements and
the philosophical underpinnings of their critical affiliations will also receive close scrutiny. As a
philosophical movement, Romanticism is frequently represented as emerging as a reaction and
response to the exaltation and enthronement of reason that characterized the Enlightenment. As a
specifically literary movement, it proclaims its emancipation from the constricting framework of
the Neo-Classical period. British Romantic poetry emerges in a tumultuous age and is
simultaneously a product of and productive of revolutions. In the “Preface to the Lyrical
Ballads”, Wordsworth reconceives the role of the poet and heralds a thematic, stylistic, and
conceptual revolution in poetry with his declaration that poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings” and his affirmation that poetry should be written in a language accessible to
ordinary people. It is a critical commonplace that Romantic poets distinguish themselves from
their poetic predecessors through “the primacy accorded to the imagination.” The imaginative
faculty as conceived by many of the Romantics obliterates differences and distinctions enabling
the artist/poet to simultaneously perceive a spirit manifest in nature and the kinship of human
2
nature and the natural world. In this course, we will attempt to scrutinize, interrogate, contest,
and deconstruct several of these and other assumptions about Romanticism. A variety of
reading/interpretive strategies will be employed during the course including close reading (New
Critical), Deconstructive, Reader-Response, and New Historicist.
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)
None
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To provide students with an overview and a critical understanding of one of the
most fertile and productive periods in the history of English Poetry; to acquaint
students with the distinctive characteristics of the romantic age.
A)
To acquaint students with the nature, scale of achievement, and the distinguishing
characteristics of the six canonical poets of the period.
B)
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete ENGL 2364 should
A)
B)
Manifest a heightened understanding and appreciation of the distinct characteristics
of British Romanticismin general and of the works of William Blake, William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats
in particular.
Emerge with a deeper understanding of the diverse contexts – social, cultural,
political, and historical in which these worksemerged.
Grading Breakup and Policy
3
There will be 28 sessions of class each 110 minutes in length.
Students will write a brief response paper based on the assigned readings at the start of each new
text. They will take a Mid-term and a Finalexam and write an 8-10 page critical essay/research
paper. The topics for the essays and the working thesis/theses will have to be approved by the
Instructor.
The critical essay/research paper, due on the last day of class should strictly adhere to the MLA
(Modern Language Association) format. A copy of the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook for
Writersof Research Papers(2016) is on reserve at the library.
The break up of the Instruments is as follows:
1. Mid Term
30%
2. Final Exam
35%
3. Critical Essay/Research Paper
30%
4. Response Papers/
Tests/ Class Presentations
5%
Examination Detail
Midterm
Exam
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 110 Minutes
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
Final
Exam
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 180 Minutes
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
COURSE OVERVIEW
Lecture
Author/ Topic
1.
Primary Text /s
Introduction to the Course
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Secondary Text /s
Introduction to Poetry;
Figures of Speech; Poetic
Forms
2.
M. H. Abrams (19122015) The Mirror and
the Lamp
(1953),“Orientation of
Critical Theories”:3-29.
The Philosophical
Underpinnings of English
and German Romanticism;
Introduction to the Kantian
revolution; subject-object
relationship
William Blake (1757-1827)
3.
Social, Cultural, and Political
Background to English Romanticism;
William Blake (1757-1827), from
“Songs of Innocence and Experience”
William Blake (1757-1827)
from “Songs of Innocence and
Experience”
4.
Jonathan Culler, Literary
Theory (2005), “What is
Literature and Does it
Matter?”: 18-41.
Isaiah Berlin, from The
Roots of Romanticism
(1965), “In Search of a
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Definition”: 1-20.
William Blake (1757-1827)
William Blake, from “Songs of
Innocence and Experience”
M H Abrams, The
Correspondent Breeze
(1984), The
Correspondent Breeze: A
Romantic Metaphor”:
25-43.
The Cambridge
Companion to British
Romanticism (2006),
Marshall Brown,
“Romanticism and
Enlightenment”; 25-47.
5.
T.S. Eliot, “William
Blake”
William Wordsworth (17701850)
Maurice Bowra, The
Romantic Imagination
(1950), “The Romantic
Imagination”:
1-24.
6.
William Wordsworth, “Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads”;
Selections from “Lyrical Ballads”
William Wordsworth (17701850)
Selections from “Lyrical Ballads”
7.
6
The Cambridge
Companion to William
Wordsworth (2006), Paul
Hamilton, “Wordsworth
and Romanticism”: 213229.
William Wordsworth (17701850)
Selections from “Lyrical Ballads”
William Wordsworth (17701850)
“Tintern Abbey”
William Wordsworth (17701850)
“Ode on Intimations of Immortality”
8.
9.
10.
11.
William Wordsworth (17701850)
12.
William Wordsworth (17701850)
The Cambridge
Companion to William
Wordsworth (2006),
Seamus Perry,
“Wordsworth and
Coleridge”: 161-179.
Romanticism and
Consciousness (1970), M
H Abrams, “Structure
and Style in the Greater
Romantic Lyric”:201229.
The Prelude, Book I
The Prelude, Book II
M. H. Abrams, Natural
Supernaturalism (1971),
“The Idea of the
Prelude”, 74-80.
Coleridge’s Poetry and
Prose (2004), Thomas
McFarland, “Coleridge’s
Theory of the
Imagination”: 750-755.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
13.
7
from BiographiaLiteraria
The primary and secondary
imagination; fancy and imagination
14.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
“Kubla Khan” ; “Ode to Dejection”
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
15.
16.
Mid Term Exam
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
17.
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From John Livingston
Lowes (1867-1945), The
Road to Xanadu: A Study
in the ways of the
Imagination (1927)
“She Walks in Beauty”;
from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
from Don Juan
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
from Manfred
18.
Maurice Bowra, The
Romantic Imagination
(1950), “Don Juan”: 149173.
19.
Thomas Love Peacock,
“The Four Ages of
Poetry”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822)
20.
“The Defense of Poetry”;
“Ozymandias”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792- “Ode to a West Wind”
1822)
21.
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British Romantic Poets
(2007), Richard Harter
Fogle, “The Imaginal
Design of Shelley’s Ode
to the West Wind”: 202209.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792- “To a Skylark” ; “To a Cloud”
1822)
British Romantic Poets
(2007), Stewart C.
Wilcox, “The Sources,
Symbolism and Unity of
Shelley’s Skylark”:239256.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792- Prometheus Unbound
1822)
Maurice Bowra, The
Romantic Imagination
(1950), “Prometheus
Unbound”; 103-125.
22.
23.
John Keats (1795-1821)
24.
Selections from his Letters,
‘Negative capability’ vs. ‘Egotistical
sublime’;
“To Autumn”
25.
26.
John Keats (1795-1821)
“Ode to a Nightingale”
John Keats (1795-1821)
“Ode on a Grecian Urn”
10
Maurice Bowra, The
Romantic Imagination
(1950), “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”: 126-148.
27.
28.
John Keats (1795-1821)
“The Eve of St.Agnes”
John Keats (1795-1821)
from “Endymion”
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