ENGL 20576 - Victorian Poetry

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

This course is designed to introduce students to Victorian poetry and culture. We will study poems by canonical figures such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Matthew Arnold, Oscar Wilde, A. C. Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, D. G. Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti. We will also look at poems by lesser-known figures such as Amy Levy, Alice Meynell, Charlotte Mew, Lionel Johnson, Augusta Webster, and Michael Field. Selections from Victorian prose will help us understand all of these poems in relationship to nineteenth-century developments in literary and aesthetic theory. This course will also pursue several organizing themes and topics that preoccupied much of the Victorian imagination, such as social reform, the woman question, the crisis of faith, evolutionary science, empire, self and society, aestheticism, and modernity. Learning goals: Students in this course will learn to recognize the basics of poetry, such as rhyme, meter, and the different conventions of poetic forms. This course will also provide students with the analytical tools and techniques they require in order to recognize general literary devices, such as symbolism, imagery, voice, and figurative language. Students will not only read poetry in its historical context, but will also focus on how poetry -- through aesthetic, formal, and intellectual innovations -- transformed this cultural landscape that is the Victorian era. The range of assignments and classroom activities are designed to further foster students' critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Regular participation, including classroom discussion and four short in-class writing assignments (2 pages maximum), teach students to position themselves within competing interpretations and arguments. Two formal papers (8-10 pages) give students an opportunity to apply their analytical and rhetorical skills as they develop their own interpretation of a text as situated within the relevant historical and cultural contexts. Ideally, this course will not only inspire students' appreciation for Victorian poetry but also for the importance of literature and writing in their own lives. Students will learn to identify themselves as historically and intellectually situated interpreters who navigate and participate in competing discourses on a daily basis. Course requirements: regular participation, 2 papers, a mid-term exam, and a final exam. Required texts: The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory, the Concise Edition.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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