Department of English

This seminar is an introduction to the Romantic period and, more broadly, an introduction to literary study.  “Romanticism,” that famously ill-defined term, has been used as a catch-all for the movement, mood, theory, and revolution that followed the Enlightenment and preceded the realism of the Victorian era.  We will consider this period of writing – roughly 1770-1830 – as one of great fluidity and change, as both a reaction to antiquity and a precursor to modernity.  We will read poetry by Gray, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Barbauld, Smith, Keats, Shelley, Hemans, Byron, and short novels by Henry Mackenzie and Jane Austen.  Students can expect to engage in discussion via both text and voice chat, to submit papers (there will be two) online and to receive feedback in the same manner.  In addition, students will complete some short assignments, quiz-like exercises and a comprehensive final exam, all offered via the course website.

This class meets wholly online. Students should have basic computer literacy, access to a computer with a wired (not wireless) connection, and a headset with microphone.