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Description: |
This course introduces students to some of the most significant literature from the Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist literary periods. The literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century witnessed an era of monumental change: the American and French Revolution; rising democracy and the fight for the equal rights of women, workers, and slaves; colonial expansion and colonial rebellion; the beginnings of climate change and the first World War. In this course we will examine how literary figures from this period responded to this time of tumultuous change. How did writers use various literary forms, ranging from poetry, novels, and essays, to reflect on the world that was being transformed around them and to express their own point of view? How was literature for poets and novelists not just a space for private artistic expression, but also a way to articulate political dissent? In addressing these questions, we will focus on an array of novelists, poets, and essayists who will serve as touchstones for the key political, intellectual, and aesthetic problems of their times (e.g. William Blake, P. B. Shelley, John Ruskin, Charlotte Brontë, T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, and Virginia Woolf, to name a few). Students will not only gain a greater appreciation for the artistic vision of individual authors, but they will also be able to situate these writers within a larger framework of ideas and historical currents. No prerequisites. Counts toward the survey requirement for the Literature, Creative Writing, and Theater majors. Relevant clusters: “Great Books, Great Authors” (H1ENG010). |