Honors 355.001 Spring 2013: Revolutions in Romantic Art and Literature
Joseph Viscomi
Mon: 3-5:30
office GL 504
Graham Memorial 212
office hrs. T, Th 11-12 & by appt.
jsviscom@email.unc.edu, http://english.unc.edu/faculty/viscomij.html
962-8764
http://sites.unc.edu/viscomi/honors.355.syl
TEXTS: Revolutions in Romantic Art and Literature Course Pack of primary and secondary readings @
http://sites.unc.edu/viscomi/romrev [name: blake; password: catherine]. Printout CP except Criticism.
Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (copy H). Ed. G. Keynes, Oxford U. P., 1975.
The William Blake Archive: http://blakearchive.org [WBA]
RESOURCES: ART RESERVE: Books and Exhibition Catalogues on Reserve in Art Library, Hanes Art Center,
REQUIREMENTS: take-home essay exams for Parts I and II (due 2/18, 3/19): answer two of the study questions
for each of the two Parts, in five or more pages for each answer.
final exam on the readings and class discussions
one research or critical essay or web-based project. It can be on any of the poets, artists, critics, or printmakers
of the period, or any interdisciplinary topic, that is, a comparative analysis of works in various media, or on any
relevant aesthetic issue, theme, subject, or concept, including a further development of a study or exam question.
1/14
Introduction to Course: Drawing as Paradigm, Print as Reproduction
PART I. William Blake and Original Printmaking
1/21 Technical and aesthetic origin of Blake's illuminated printing:
BLAKE ARCHIVE/About Blake: Blake biography and illustrated essay on illuminated printing
CP DRAWING MANUALS: Selection of comments on prints and drawings
BLAKE: Critical comments on illuminated printing; Prospectus for illuminated books; letters: 1818
to Turner; 1827 to Cumberland
LANDSEER: Lecture III
CRITICISM: Wilton, The Print in England, “Printmaking in early 19th c England,” pp 6-11
1/28
2/4
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (copy H)
BLAKE ARCHIVE: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, copies C, D, F, G, I
CP CRITICISM: Eaves, et al.: The Early Illuminated Books, introduction to Illuminated Books and
introduction and commentary to The Marriage (copy F)
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (copy H)
CP HAZLITT: On Imitation; On Originality
BLAKE: letters: 1799 to Trusler (2) and to Cumberland
COLERIDGE: “On Poesy and Art” (on imitation and copy)
EATON: Pernicious Effects of the Art of Printing Upon Society, Exposed
2/11 Blake’s art theories: from neoclassic to romantic
CP REYNOLDS: Discourses III, IV, VI, VII
BLAKE: Annotations to Reynolds; from the Descriptive Catalogue; Public Address
CRITICISM: Hipple on Reynolds, from The Beautiful, the Sublime, and the Picturesque,
PART II. J. M. W. Turner and Watercolor Painting
2/18 The Sublime, the Beautiful, and the Picturesque [Take-home exam for Part I due]
CP BURKE: Introduction, chap. 1-3 from A Philosophical Enquiry
GILPIN: Three Essays (1808 ed)
BLAKE: letter, 1800, to Cumberland, 1802 to Butts
ART RESERVE: Bicknell, Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes (intro, itinerary, chronology, pictures)
CRITICISM: Hipple, on Burke and Gilpin
2/25
The Picturesque and Anti-Picturesque in practice
CP GILPIN: Two Essays
COZENS: The New Method, + illus.
1
DRAWING MANUALS: Craig, Aiken, and reviews of Gilpin’s Three Essays
HAZLITT: “On the Picturesque and Ideal”
ART RESERVE: Wilcox, British Watercolors; Wilton, British Watercolor s, 1750-1850
(Smith, Sandby, Towne, Pars, J.R. Cozens, A. Cozens, Girtin, Turner, Cotman, Constable)
3/4
workshop in landscape drawing
COZENS: The New Method; art supplies: large sheets of drawing paper and transparent papers,
black ink and large watercolor brushes, pencils
PART III. Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron: Experiments in Lyrical poetry and new ideas of the Artist
3/19
CP COLERIDGE: Pantisocracy, Aeolian Harp, This Lime Tree Bower my Prison, Frost at Midnight,
Reflections, Nightingale
3/26
CP WORDSWORTH: Expostulation and Reply, Tables Turned, Lines Written upon a Yew-Tree, Tintern
Abbey in Lyrical Ballads, 1st edition
GILPIN: Observations on the River Wye
4/1
CP WORDSWORTH: Advertisement Lyrical Ballads (1798): Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 2nd edition
(1800), and Appendix
4/8
CP WORDSWORTH: parallel text in the 1805 and 1850 versions of The Prelude: bks 11/12, 12/13,
13/14
4/15
CP LORD BYRON: Prometheus, Darkness, Manfred: A Dramatic Poem
Dramatic Reading of Manfred: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnVwfZfB6Bk
4/22
PREVIEW OF STUDENT PROJECTS
4/30
STUDENT PAPERS DUE
5/1
FINAL EXAM:
4:00 pm
ART RESERVE BOOK LIST
DA 670. L1 W67. 1984
Bicknell, P.
ND 1928 W533. 1985
Wilcox
ND 1928 W55. 1977
Wilton
N6797.T88 A4. 1980
Wilton
ND 1942 T8. W55 1982 B
Wilton
Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes
British Watercolors
British Watercolor 1750-1850
Turner and The Sublime
Turner Abroad
RESOURCES:
The English Romantic Poets; A Review of Research and Criticism, ed. Frank Jordan, 4th edition. MLA, l985. [Davis
Reference Shelf, PR590.E5.1985, ROW 29]. This is an annotated bibliography of books and important articles on the
Romantic poets and their works. Critical works on the Romantics from before and after 1985 to the present can be found
through the index of periodical literature, the annual bibliography published by Garland Press (from 1979) and journals
in the field, e.g., Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, The Wordsworth Circle, and Keats-Shelley Journal, which is now
online for the years 1994-2007 at: http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/ksjbib/. See also http://www.lib.unc.edu/ for UNC’s
Article Databases (e.g., MLA International Bibliography [1963-2007]), Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, and
Literature Online), E-Journal Finder, and Print Journals (Catalog Search); Voice of the Shuttle, http://vos.ucsb.edu/;
Romantic Literary Resources, http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/romantic.html; Romantic Circles, Scholarly
Resources: http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/; and Google Scholar at http://www.scholar.google.com/. For articles
online, see the Scholarly Journal Archive at http://www.jstor.org/. Also helpful is the Introduction to Library Research,
http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/tutorial/.
Excellent facsimiles of Blake's illuminated books are in the Department of Rare Books, Wilson Library; for
excellent digital reproductions of various exemplary copies of these and other of Blake’s illuminated books, as
well as engravings, paintings, and helpful bibliographies, go to The Blake Archive at http://blakearchive.org
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