MENMD2BRM: British Romanticism 1785-1831
Credits: 20 credits
Course Director: Dr Peter Merchant
This module provides an introduction to the literature of the Romantic period in Britain, and to the cultural and intellectual climate out of which this literature emerged. Works of great imaginative power and rich historical resonance are gathered together in a single movement, and seen in a single vision. They are also, conveniently enough, grouped together in a single volume—at least, all of the primary materials prescribed for the year’s study are contained in one anthology—so students tend to appreciate the compact and cohesive nature of the module.
Since the anthology that we use, Duncan Wu’s Romanticism, has very high concentrations of poetry—representing, in fact, around 85% of the whole—and since no other literary period is so completely identified with just one literary kind, students should be aware that (Jane Austen notwithstanding) poetry is what will dominate the work. Within Romantic verse, however, the variety is extraordinary and exhilarating. From one major contributor to the movement comes verse to inspire us; “my purpose has...been...to familiarise the more select classes of poetical readers,” writes Shelley, “with beautiful idealisms of moral excellence.” From another, claiming purposes altogether different, comes verse to entertain us; “I have nothing plann’d,” says Byron, “Unless it were to be a moment merry.” Among those joining Byron and Shelley in the Top Ten of British Romantic writers (as determined by the quantity of coverage accorded to each in Wu’s anthology) are a number of others whom you can expect to find equally challenging and fascinating; they include William Blake, Charlotte Smith, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats.
Assessment is by a 500-word critical commentary (10%), a 2,000-word essay (40%) and a two-hour closed-book exam (50%).