Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Requirements

Students are required to attend all class sessions and to participate. I do not evaluate class participation in terms of how many brilliant things you say in the course of the semester, but I require you to have read the texts thoroughly and to come to class prepared to talk about them. Failure to attend classes will negatively affect your grade; more than two unexcused absences will drop your grade by a letter, and more than three such absences will be considered grounds for failing the course. In addition, every student will be required to deliver 2-3 presentations on an assigned work during the semester. These presentations, between 10-15 minutes in length, should be conceived as exercises in literary interpretation through close analysis, and should ideally help to stimulate a discussion through arguments and questions.

For each essay assignment, a handout will be distributed detailing requirements and due dates. Feel free to come and discuss with me written assignments before they are due if you have any questions or problems.

Course Calendar

DAY # Topics Key Dates
Week 1
1 Introduction
Week 2
2 Readings by Thomas Gray, Thomas Warton, and Charles Lloyd
3 Readings by Anna Seward and Charlotte Smith
Week 3
4 Readings by Wordsworth
5 Readings by Wordsworth (cont.)
Week 4
6 Readings by Wordsworth (cont.)
Week 5
7 Readings by Coleridge
8 Readings by Wordsworth, Coleridge, and John Thelwall
Week 6
9 Readings by Coleridge (cont.) Essay 1 due (5-7 pages)
10 Readings by Keats
Week 7
11 Readings by Keats (cont.)
12 Readings by Keats (cont.)
Week 8
13 Readings by Keats and William Hazlitt
14 Readings by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Week 9
15 Readings by Percy Bysshe Shelley (cont.)
Week 10
16 Readings by Percy Bysshe Shelley (cont.)
17 Readings by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Byron
Week 11
18 Readings by Mary Shelley
Week 12
19 Readings by Mary Shelley (cont.)
20 Readings by Byron
Week 13
21 Readings by Byron (cont.)
22 Readings by Byron (cont.)
Week 14
23 Readings by Byron (cont.)
24 Readings by Byron (cont.) Essay 2 due (8-10 pages)