E
NGLISH
L
ITERATURE
1660-1900
(seminar)
Requirements: regular attendance with a copy of the text we are to discuss in class participation in class discussion one home essay (of min. 1,500 words) written on one of the following poems: Wordsworth:
‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’, Coleridge: ‘Kubla Khan’, Shelley: ‘Ode to the West
Wind’, Keats: ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, Browning: ‘My Last Duchess’
- the essay must be type written and double spaced
- it must be handed in at the beginning of the class on which we discuss the text you have chosen
- failure to write the essay automatically results in failing the course! four written responses (outlines of an essay you will not have to write in full) to the poems that you do not write an essay about (base your written responses on the study questions given below) five quizzes to test your familiarity with the longer texts (as indicated below)
Note that all written assignments must be handed in on the date given below and at the very beginning of the class. If you fail to meet this deadline, you will have to ask for an alternative topic and I will deduct one from your grade.
Assessment will be based on the home essay which will be graded (40%), and on the quizzes and written responses (60%).
Schedule:
Date Work(s) to be discussed in class Topics, issues to be discussed (study questions)
14 Feb
21 Feb Pope: The Rape of the Lock – quiz
Rochester: ‘A Satire Against Mankind’
Shakespeare and Dryden
- which elements of the classical epic form do you recognize?
- what is the function of the sylphs and gnomes?
- what symbolic meaning(s) does the lock have?
- how does Defoe achieve the realistic effect? 28 Feb Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (read the
7 Mar first half of the novel – until Crusoe finds the footprints) – quiz
Swift: Gulliver’s Travels ; Part IV
– quiz
- what mythic, symbolic references/structures do you find?
- what ideological messages does the novel deliver?
- how do the yahoos compare to Gulliver?
- how do the Houyhnhnms compare to Gulliver/Europeans?
- is Swift a misanthrope?
- What is the world of Innocence like? (time and space, positive 14 Mar Blake: from Songs of Innocence
‘Introduction’, ‘The Divine Image’,
‘Infant Joy’, ‘The Lamb’, ‘The
Chimney Sweeper’; from Experience
‘Introduction’, ‘Earth’s Answer’, ‘The
Human Abstract’, ‘The Clod and the
Pebble’, ‘The Garden of Love’
– written response based on the study questions
21 Mar Wordsworth: ‘We Are Seven’, ‘I
Wandered Lonely’, ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ – written response based on the study questions and inadequate features)
- How does the world of Experience differ?
- How do the poems as poems differ? (rhythms, language, use of metaphors etc.)
- How is Experience related to/dependent on Innocence?
- the language and the characters in ‘We Are Seven’
- the significance of the encounter (Why did Wordsworth write this poem?)
- temporal structure of ‘I Wandered Lonely’; the role of memory

- describe the process of separation (stanza V) and the changed relationship to nature (stanza VI) in the ‘Ode’;
- in what way is the child’s situation happier than the adult’s?
(stanzas VII and VIII)
- What is it that remains? Try to understand the connection
(stanza IX).
28 Mar Coleridge: ‘Kubla Khan’
– written response based on the study questions
- Describe the contrast btw. Kubla’s garden and the ‘romantic chasm’
- What does the river Alph represent symbolically?
- How is the last section connected to the previous two?
4 Apr Percy Bysshe Shelley: ‘Ode to the
West Wind’
– written response based on the study questions
- What are the central images through which the West Wind is introduced in each of the first three stanzas?
- What does the WW represent symbolically?
- Stanzas IV and V represent different reactions to what the WW stands for. What does this difference consist in?
11 Apr Keats: ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
Browning: ‘My Last Duchess’
– written response (choose one poem to write about) based on the
- What does the urn stand for?
- How are the two images pictured on the vase (stanzas 2 and 4) contrasted/related?
- Who utters the last two lines? Why is this significant?
- Describe the dramatic situation in ‘My Last Duchess’. (Who study questions speaks? To whom? In what circumstances? On what occasion?)
9 May Austen: Pride and Prejudice – quiz
- Why did the duke have his wife killed?
16 May Assessment, evaluation