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ELIT 401 The Romantic Age
Full Course Title:
The Romantic Age
(Insert the full course title in Bosnian)
Course Code:
Course Level/BiH cycle:
ECTS credit value:
ELIT 401
1st Cycle
6
Student work-load:
For the whole semester:
Length:
Faculty/School/Department:
Lectures
Individual
learning
TOTAL
30
120
150
Fall 2013
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, English Language and Literature Program
Course leader:
Assist. Prof. Dr. Barbara Ann Brown
Contact details:
Office:
F2.20
Office hours:
Site:
Host Study Program:
e-mail:
bbrown@ius.edu.ba
Phone:
033/957 312
IUS Main Campus
English Literature
Course status:
Core Course
Pre-requisites:
ELIT 101 Introduction to Literature
Access restrictions:
None
Assessment:
Assignments, written exams, essays
Date validated:
February 2012
The aims of this module are:
 To define what Romanticism is and how it came into being in the second half of the 18 th and
early 19th centuries in England;
Course aims:
 To give an overview of the social, political, cultural, economical and religious aspects of English
life from the second half of the 18th century to the early 19th century. This will enable the
students to see the relationship between the spirit of the age and literary romanticism;
 To develop a critical understanding of the debates related to the literature created during the
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Romantic age;
 To compare and contrast English literature created before and the Romantic age;
 To cultivate in the student of literature an appreciation of the power of imagination in literary
creation, and an understanding of the role of critical traditions in shaping literary history.
On successful completion of this module the student will be able to:

Form an educated opinion on a particular work of prose or poetry and discuss that opinion in
a verbal or written format;

Define the movement of Romanticism in literature, particularly in England, and how that
movement relates to the social, political, economical, historical, philosophical and cultural
events that took place at the time;

Examine and analyze an individual major work created in the Romantic period and
formulate a critical interpretation of it based on academic research.
Learning outcomes:
Indicative syllabus content:
At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the world experienced the French and
American revolutions as well as the popular wars of independence in Greece, Spain, and Poland.
Because of these developments, the European and, particularly, English perceptions and views
also changed, and then a reaction against the mechanism and rationalism of the Enlightenment
started taking place in Europe as well as all over the world. This reaction may be simply called
Romanticism, which rejected inherited notions of formality and containment, emphasized the
individual and the expressive, and the immanence of imagination in human life. It asserted the
primacy of the perceiver, of the individual experience. In England, Romanticism was manifested in
the works of several generations of poets and artists, such as William Blake, William Wordsworth,
Samuel Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Pearcey Shelley, Mary Shelley and others. This course
will survey the work and ideas of these English writers, whose prose and poetry are a prime
example of the Romantic Age. Students will learn about the historical events, major philosophical
influences, the dominant literary genres and traditions of the period.
Learning delivery:
Weekly lectures, presentation and classroom discussions (3 hours per week).
Assessment Rationale:
Assessment within this module is designed to have the students recognise properly the course
content which they will be learning during the semester. The assessment of the students’ overall
success during the semester and at the end of the semester includes reading and writing
assignments, classroom discussions, essays, mid-term and final exams.
20 % Mid-term exam,
30 % essays (2 essays worth 15% each)
Assessment Weighting:
20 % classroom discussions, and
30 % Final exam.

Abrams, M. H. and Others, eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2 (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1979)
Essential Reading:

Abrams, M. H., The Mirror and The Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953)

Brisman, Leslie, Romantic Origins (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978)

Clayton, Jay, Romantic Vision and the Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1987)
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
Fry, Northrop, A Study of English Romanticism (Brighton: Harvester, 1968)

Macovski, Michael, Dialogue and Literature: Apostrophe, Auditors, and the Collapse of
Romantic Discourse (Oxford University Press, 1994)

Jerome J. McGann, The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation (University Of
Chicago Press, 1985)

Saree Makdisi, Romantic Imperialism: Universal Empire and the Culture of Modernity
(Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Recommended readings:
Intranet web reference:
N/A
Important notes:
Quality assurance:
Student surveys
Course schedule:
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Week
Lesson
/ Date
Topics to be covered
Class activities
Lab
Problems/
Readings
activities Assignments
(Homework)
Learning objectives
(After this lesson
student will be able to:)
1
1&2
Welcome to the course!
Students will be given the syllabus and they will have the
chance to greet the professor.
No lab
activities
1. Identify Romanticism.
Course design, objectives, and learning outcomes will be
explained and discussed.
Begin reading
Ivanhoe by Sir
Walter Scott.
2. Explain how Romanticism was a
reaction to Classicism.
3. Describe the basic history and
cultural influences related to
Romanticism.
The lecture will be a brief summary of relevant literary
approaches to Romanticism within the academy.
Students will be asked to explain their orientation with
Romanticism. A lecture will be given to review late 18th and
early 19th century history and cultural influences.
2
3 &4
Welcome to the course!
Eid Holiday Week
Students will be given the syllabus and they will have the
chance to greet the professor.
No lab
activities
Ivanhoe by Sir
Walter Scott.
Course design, objectives, and learning outcomes will be
explained and discussed.
The lecture will be a brief summary of relevant literary
approaches to Romanticism within the academy.
1. Define Romanticism.
2. Explain how Romanticism was a
reaction to Classicism.
3. Describe the basic history and
cultural influences related to
Romanticism.
Students will be asked to explain their orientation with
Romanticism. A lecture will be given to review late 18th and
early 19th century history and cultural influences.
3
5&6
The Long 19th Century
This lecture will give a broad overview of 19th Century British
history and literature.
No lab
activities
Ivanhoe by Sir
Walter Scott.
4
7&8
The First Historical Romance Novel:
Students will be asked to read in advance of these lectures the
No lab
Sir Walter
1. Explain the major changes from
the end of the 18th century to
the beginning of the 19th
century.
2. Identify monarchs and their
policies.
3. Describe major cultural trends
and literary views regarding
verbal art.
1. Define Novel.
2. Identify the early form of the
Novel.
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Ivanhoe
historical Romantic novel Ivanhoe.
activities
Scott, Ivanhoe
No lab
activities
Sir Walter
Scott, Ivanhoe
The lecture will focus on historical accuracy of events in the text
as well as on how this novel impacted the legend of Robin
Hood in Yorkshire.
Students will be asked to explain the difference between a text
that is meant to be didactic as opposed to a text that comes
from the imagination in an effort to please the audience.
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9 & 10
The First Historical Romance Novel:
Ivanhoe
Students will be asked to read in advance of these lectures the
historical Romantic novel Ivanhoe.
The lecture will focus on historical accuracy of events in the text
as well as on how this novel impacted the legend of Robin
Hood in Yorkshire.
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11 & 12
Note: If it is obvious that very few
students have read Ivanhoe, the
professor reserves the right to
immediately give a quiz.
Students will be asked to explain the difference between a text
that is meant to be didactic as opposed to a text that comes
from the imagination in an effort to please the audience.
Gothic Novel + Romanticism = Science
Fiction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Students will be asked to read in advance of these lectures the
Gothic novel Frankenstein.
Students
should begin
reading Mary
Shelley’s
Frankenstein.
No lab
activities
Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
Students will discuss the implications of humans “playing God,” No lab
so to speak and debate issues of human potential and human
activities
responsibility when it comes to these issues. Additionally, they
will compare and contrast ideas, images, and the role of
imagination within the realm of human achievement and
potential
Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
The lecture will focus briefly on Mary Shelley’s biography and
advance toward early feminist ideas regarding creation and
procreation.
3. Define Historical Romance Novel
4. Identify Walter Scott’s poetic
license regarding real historical
figures and events and how Scott
portrays these people and
events in a work of fiction.
1. Define didactic verbal art.
2. Define imagination.
3. Define audience, incident, and
tone.
4. Compare and contrast historical
texts with works of fiction.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Define Novel.
Define Gothic Novel.
Define early feminism.
Identify and explain The Big
Questions of human potential
and human responsibility.
Students will be asked to explain the difference between late
18th century novel forms and that of the Gothic Novel, which
Mary Shelley largely invented on her own.
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13 & 14
Gothic Novel + Romanticism = Science
Fiction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Essay #1 due.
8
15 & 16
Midterm Examination Week
No lab
1. Define what the Creature is.
2. Compare and contrast issues of
creation and imagination.
3. Identify and explain how Shelley
was influenced to write such a
horror story.
Midterm examination week.
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th
BH Statehood Day November 25 .
9
17 & 18
William Blake
activities
Students will be in troduced to the coolest poet who ever lived. No lab
Students will discuss the relationship between visual and verbal activities
art, and how William Blake achieved the perfect marriage
between these two artistic mediums.
William Blake,
Songs of
Innocence and
Experience.
Students will be asked to choose their favorite plate and
present a brief explication of the plate and the poem it
represents in a lively classroom discussion.
Students will also be introduced to Blake’s influence on
contemporary poets and musicians, such as Peter Gabriel, U2,
and of course, Bob Dylan.
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19 & 20
William Wordsworth
Students will discuss what made Wordsworth the
quintessential poet laureate by focusing on imagery of nature
within his poetry.
No lab
activities
Students will be asked to write a short poetic stanza imitating
Wordsworth’s use of nature imagery in English as a writing and
reading exercise. Students will be asked to share their stanza
with the class in a round table discussion.
11
21 & 22
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The lecture will focus primarily on Coleridge’s introduction of
No lab
German idealist philosophy to English speaking cultures and his activities
large influence on the American Transcendentalists, specifically
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Students will be asked to read the poems closely and explicate
images, symbols, and wordplay to demonstrate how Coleridge
created meaning with a large toolbox of different poetic
artifices.
12
23 & 24
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Catholic Christmas Dec. 25.
This lecture will focus on the controversial poet George Gordon, No lab
Lord Byron and his groundbreaking advances in verbal art via
activities
the narrative and short lyric poetic forms.
Students will be asked to compose a short imitation of “She
William
Wordsworth,
“Lines
Composed
Above Tintern
Abbey”
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, “The
Rime of the
Ancient
Mariner” and
Kubla Khan.
1.Identify the process Blake used to
make his plates.
2.Define Romantic Age
characteristics of visual and verbal
art.
3. Identify poetic form and meter.
3. Define how Blake sees the
difference between innocence and
experience in nature.
4. Explain and describe the place of
nature in Romanticism.
1.Identify and explicate natural
imagery.
2.Define lyrical ballad.
3.Define Romantic poetry.
1.Identify poetic form and meter.
2.Explain and describe how images,
symbols, and wordplay interact to
create meaning.
3.Identify the speaker of the poem.
4. Compare and contrast the role of
the poet with the role of the
speaker.
1.Define narrative poem.
George
2.Define lyric poem
Gordon, Lord
3.Define self-imposed exile.
Byron, Selected 4.Define Byronic hero.
Poems
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walks in beauty” as a reading and writing exercise. Students will
be asked to share their short lyric with the class in a round
table discussion about the form, meter, and rhyme of a short
lyric poem.
13
25 & 26
Percy Bysshe Shelley
New Year Holiday
Essay #2 due.
The lecture will focus primarily on Shelley’s Synaesthesia and
No lab
how he uses synaethestic images to create meaning in his
activities
poems. Additionally, we will discuss Shelley’s influence on the
French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Morrison of The
Doors.
1.Define Lyric Poetry
Percy Bysshe
2.Define Synaesthesia.
Shelley,
3.Explain the role of the poet and
Selected Poems the role of the speaker.
Students will be asked to provide synaethetic examples from
their own experiences in nature and to compose 2 images of
their own that feature synaesthetic components.
14
27 & 28
John Keats
The lecture will focus primarily on Keats’s ambition to reinvent
the form of the Ode for a modern audience. His use of images
to create meaning and his lasting influence on subsequent
generations of poets will also be discussed.
No lab
activities
Students will be asked to compose one stanza using the
Keatsian Ode as a reading and writing exercise. Students will be
encouraged to share their composition in a roundtable
discussion.
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29 & 30
The Pre-Raphelite Poets and Artists
The lecture will focus primarily on the union of poetry and the No lab
visual arts in this lecture. Students will be introduced to various activities
artists and in particular to John William Waterhouse.
John Keats,
“The Eve of St.
Agnes,” “La
belle dame
sans merci,”
and the six
Keatsian Odes.
The Poetry of
Drawing.
1.Define Spenserian stanza.
2.Define Ode.
3.Identify and describe the
departures Keats took from the
Classical Ode forms.
1.Define Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood.
2. Identify key figures within the
Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood.
3.Describe the Pre-Raphelite
depictions of female literary figures
in visual art mediums.
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