English Literature of the Romantic Age
Code
711121030
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Línguas, Culturas e Literaturas Modernas, Secção de Estudos Ingleses e Norte-Americanos
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Maria Zulmira Castanheira
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To gain a thorough grasp of and acquire wide-ranging, in-depth knowledge of the main parameters of English Romantic literature;
b) to be able to relate the authors studied to the relevant historical and socio-cultural context;
c) to develop the ability to critically analyse important texts of this period in the fields of lyrical poetry and the novel;
d) to acquire knowledge of the diversity of theoretical and critical approaches published in the area of Romantic Studies;
e) to develop competences to undertake autonomous research.
Prerequisites
Non-applicable.
Subject matter
A) Theoretical:
The eighteenth-century background: Neoclassicism and the dawning of new sensibilities.
Problematization of the concepts of Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism.
Political, socio-economic and cultural contextualisation of English Romanticism.
Characterisation of Romantic aesthetics: Romanticism or Romanticisms?
A general overview of English Romantic poetry: the authors and their works, literary themes, literary theory.
The first and second generations of Romantic poets.
The novel: a general overview of the most important authors, texts and subgenres.
Introduction to Mary Shelley´s work.
B) Practical:
Reading and analysing poems by poets of the first and second Romantic generations (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats).
Critical reading of excerpts from Mary Shelley´s novel Frankenstein.
Reading and discussion of critical essays on the works in the syllabus.
Bibliography
Curran, S. (ed.) (2010). The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Day, A. (2011). Romanticism. 2nd ed. London , New York: Routledge.
Kelly, G. (1989). English Fiction of the Romantic Period 1789-1830. London, New York: Longman.
McCalman, I. (ed.) (2001). An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age. British Culture 1776- 1832. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Moore, J. & Strachan, J. (2010). Key Concepts in Romantic Literature. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Punter, D. (ed.) (2001). A Companion to the Gothic. Oxford, UK/Malden, Massachussets USA: Blackwell.
Spooner, C. & McEvoy, E. (eds.) (2007). The Routledge Companion to the Gothic. London, New York: Routledge.
Wu, D. (ed.) (1999). A Companion to Romanticism. New ed. Oxford, UK/Malden, Massachussets USA: Blackwell.
Wu, D. (ed.) (1996). Romanticism: A Critical Reader. Oxford, UK/Malden, Massachussetts USA: Blackwell.
Teaching method
Theoretical presentation designed to provide a historical and critical context for subsequent approaches to the selected texts; practical application of the knowledge gained in joint analyses (teacher and students) of the works on the reading list; group discussion of works from the selected critical bibliography, previously read by the students. Students will be guided and supported with a view to preparing them for the tests.
Evaluation method
Two written classroom tests, a mid-semester test and a final one (80%); participation in class in discussions and analysis of selected texts (20%).