Classic to Romantic Day Into Night Spring 2017

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1 English 363K MW 11:30-1 Par 204 E. M. Richmond-Garza Classic to Romantic Day Into Night Spring 2017 I m going to the darklands to talk in rhyme with my chaotic soul as sure as life means nothing and all things end in nothing and heaven I think is too close to hell The Jesus and Mary Chain, darklands Intent of the Course How does European art and literature move from the fiery bright day of the eighteenth-century philosophes and neo-classical poets to the dark intensity of the height of Romanticism? How are the promise of rationalism, the hopes of the French Revolution and the elegant coolness of the idealized Golden Age of Hellenistic Greece transformed into the great passionate and ironic experiment of Romanticism? How can we account for and appreciate the extraordinary international artistic explosion around the year 1800 throughout Europe as artists and writers sought to go beyond what they saw as their betrayal by the previous generation s exquisite plans? Treating a fin-de-siècle twilight and a new centiry s dawn not unlike our own, this course will situate the art and literature of the English Romantics within the social, political, and aesthetic contexts of both Classicism and international Romanticism. We will look at the fine arts, especially painting and music, as well as the literary texts of the period. Dissatisfied with the neo-classical aesthetics and politics of Pope, Johnson, and Reynolds, even in the eighteenth century Blake in England and Diderot in France were already testing the Romantic waters. Rousseau and German Romanticism set fire to the already growing fascination with new philosophies of mind, nature, government, the sublime, and the soul and initiated the two great waves of Romanticism in England. We will read the English texts of Classicism, Sentimentalism, and Romanticism and pursue through them the seductive thread of the graveyard school of poetry and the role of gothic horror, both of which inspire much of the period s production and culminate in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley s Frankenstein. We will also explore the continental analogs such as Novalis, Schiller, and Karamzin who resonate within, and are sometimes even plagiarized by, the English authors. Finally, we shall not deny ourselves the full pleasure of the English Romantics themselves, especially Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron and Shelley. Texts All the literary texts will either be in a reader prepared for the course or available as.pdfs on Canvas. Students should also purchase a copy of Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley s Frankenstein. While many editions are satisfactory, any version of the 1819 text is suitable. One easily available edition is the Dover Thrift edition (1994) ISBN-10:

2 Syllabus for Honors E 363K, page 2 All film clips, musical selections, and images will be available through Canvas. Policy Statement In accordance with UT undergraduate grading policies, students in the course will be graded on a 100-point scale which includes + and. 1. The oral, attendance, and participation requirements for the class include the following: Attendance of the class meetings is required, and participation and questions are encouraged. Active class participation may assist in improving the student s final grade in borderline cases. Students who do not participate in class discussions should expect to receive as their grade for the course overall the grade that they have earned for the written work. Attendance will be taken regularly at the start of each class. Each student will be allowed up to three unexcused absences in the course of the semester. Any further absences will lower the student s grade by a half grade (i.e. a B becomes a B-, and a B- becomes a C+). Tardiness counts as absence. Any special circumstances or additional absences must be discussed with the instructor and approved in advance of the days to be missed. Absences for the observance of religious holidays will be excused. Students are expected to come to class prepared. Careful reading of all assigned texts is expected before class on the day for which they are assigned. Students are expected to have done the required work and to come to class with comments and questions about the material. Students are expected to behave in a collegial and polite manner during class. Texting, answering , talking outside the class discussion, or in any way being disruptive of the sessions or disrespectful to other students is not permitted. Students who do not pay attention in class will be asked to leave class and will be counted absent for the day. Each student will give a 15-minute oral report, together with one or two other members of the class. At least 24 hours in advance of each report, the presenters for that day will post three questions for the class on Canvas and will prepare a handout and/or.ppt presentation for the class. (10%) 2. All assignments may be rewritten any time prior to the due date of the next written assignment. Grades for the rewrites will be averaged with the grade assigned to the original draft submitted. The written requirements for the class, for which detailed instructions will be provided later, include the following: A book of Aphorisms (one 100-word entry for each reading assignment). These notes will be completed while doing the assigned readings before class and should not be based on class discussion. Their goal is two-fold: 1) to demonstrate that the student has done the reading carefully and on time, 2) to share individual responses

3 Syllabus for Honors E 363K, page 3 to the texts in a less formal environment. The entries will be collected in two halves. (5% + 5%) A short assignment which considers a single text from the syllabus (5 pages). For the first short essay a topic will be suggested, although any topic that has been approved by the instructor in advance of submission will be encouraged and accepted. (20%) A brief research report and commentary (2 pages), on web-based and library resources for a topic of the student s choice in preparation for the writing of the research paper. (10%) A formal prospectus (100 words), which describes the area of focus and initial ideas for the long essay. This prospectus will be peer-reviewed and will also be submitted to the instructor for final approval and comments. (5%) An analytic research essay (8 pages) on a topic of the student s choice. (35%) A third assignment (3 pages), which may involve creative writing, performance and/or a collaboration between students, or may be a short essay. (10%) All work is expected to be the student s own and is governed by UT s policy on academic honesty: The final grade for the course will be cumulative and based upon the percentages indicated. There will be no final examination. In order to pass the course all of the assignments must be completed. Failure to complete any one of the assignments will constitute failing the course. All special circumstances must be discussed with the instructor in advance of the due date. Any assignments submitted late will be held to a higher standard, because the student has had the unfair advantage of more time to prepare, and will be marked more severely as a result. The written assignments will be graded for form and style as well as content. No assignments will be accepted after 5 PM on the last class day of the semester. Students with Disabilities and Honor Code Documented Disability Statement: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at (voice) or (video phone), or visit: Honor Code: The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

4 Syllabus for Honors E 363K, page 4 Academic Integrity: Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work. For additional information on Academic Integrity, see Religious Holy Days: By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of a pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing, and consent of the instructor. Flags: This course carries 2 flags: writing and global cultures Schedule of Readings and Assignments 1: The Age of Neo-Classicism Darkens 18 January Beginnings 23 January Reading: Alexander Pope, from Essay on Criticism (1711), pp * In class: Bath, London and Oxford 25 January Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock ( ), Cantos I-III * In class: Hogarth s London 30 January Reading: The Rape of the Lock, Cantos IV-V * Samuel Johnson, from The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) pp * 1 February Reading: Edward Young, from Night Thoughts (1746), pp * Thomas Grey, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), pp * In class: Constable s landscapes 2: The Rise of Sentiment and Passion 6 February Reading: Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey (1761) *** 8 February Reading: Denis Diderot, Rameau s Nephew (1761) *** In class: Rameau and Baroque music 13 February Reading: Horatio Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1765), pp *** In Class: Piranesi s architectural fanstasies 15 February Reading: Rousseau, from Confessions (1770), Book I, pp *** 20 February Reading: Rousseau, from Confessions, Book XII, pp *** 3: Mysticism and Orientalism 22 February Reading: Frances Sheridan, The History of Nourjahad (1767), pp *** In class: Orientalism First Assignment Due

5 Syllabus for Honors E 363K, page 5 27 February Reading: Sir Joshua Reynolds, from Discourses (1790), pp * In class: Gainsborough s and Reynolds portraits 1 March Reading: Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, The Island of Bornholm (1793) *** Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin Autumn and Demons (1830) * In class: Kiprensky s and Bryullov s St. Petersburg 6 March Reading: William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793), pp ** In class: Blake s illustrated text 8 March Reading: Blake, from The Four Zoas and Night the Ninth ( ), pp , ** March SPRING BREAK 20 March Reading: Friedrich Schiller, Naïve and Sentimental Poetry (1795), pp *** In class: Goethe s Lyrics and Schubert s art songs 4: Intimations of the Gothic 22 March Reading: William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey (1798), pp ** In class: Caspar David Friedrich s landscapes 27 March Reading: Novalis, Hymns to the Night (1800) *** In class: Fuseli s nightmares 29 March Reading: Coleridge, Christabel, Part I (1798), pp ** and Part II (1816), pp ** In class: Weber s gothic opera Prospectus for the Long Essay Due 3 April Reading: Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805), from Book First, Book Fifth and Book Sixth, pp , , ** In class: the Lake District, the Alps and the French Revolution 5 April Heinrich von Kleist, On the Marionette Theater (1810) *** 10 April Reading: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Kahn, (1816), pp ** 12 April Reading: George Gordon, Lord Byron, Darkness (1816) and Act III, scene iv from Manfred (1817), pp and **; She Walks in Beauty and Sonnet on Chillon ** In class: Nathan and Beethoven 17 April Reading: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mont Blanc (1817) and Ozymandias (1818), pp , and 414 ** Thomas de Quincey, from Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821), pp ** In class: J.M.W. Turner s paintings 5: The Nightside of Romanticism 19 April Reading: Shelley, from A Defense of Poetry (1821), pp **

6 Syllabus for Honors E 363K, page 6 John Keats, Letter to George and Tom Keats (1817), pp ** Long Essay Due 24 April Reading: Keats, Ode to a Nightingale (1819) and Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819), The Eve of St. Agnes (1820), pp , pp ** 26 April Reading: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), Vol. I, pp May Reading: Frankenstein, Vol. II and III, pp In class: Film versions of Frankenstein 3 May John William Polidori, The Vampyre (1819) *** In class: Endings Last Assignment Due * indicates passages in reader from The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century ** indicates passages in reader from Romantic Poetry and Prose *** indicates passages from other collcections available as.pdfs on Canvas

English 334: Reason and Romanticism Fall 2009 (WEC/AA program) Vol. 10, No. 1 Price 7 Pence

English 334: Reason and Romanticism Fall 2009 (WEC/AA program) Vol. 10, No. 1 Price 7 Pence Vital Information About the Course and Instructor Latest Intelligence Instructor: Dallas Liddle, Ph.D. Meetings: