English 327:

Women Writers of the Romantic Era

Dr. Leith Davis

email: leith@sfu.ca

web site: http://www.sfu.ca/personal/leith

Course Description:

Recent re-evaluations of the literature of the Romantic Era have turned our attention increasingly to women's contributions. As Stephen Behrendt and Harriet Linkin comment, the "British Romantic scene . . . included women far more prominently -- and their presence and their influence were acknowledged by their male contemporaries far more generally -- than has been appreciated for the last century." In fact, focusing on women's writing gives us quite a different interpretation of the field of print culture during the period between 1780 and 1830 and calls previous assumptions about the nature of "Romanticism" into question. This course will attempt to map out a different terrain of Romanticism than that made available by reading the nexus of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron and Keats, as we will concentrate exclusively on women writers. Students can expect to encounter both well-known writers -- such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley -- and some of those less well known -- Joanna Baillie, Carolina Nairne, Mary Prince and Anne Yearsley, for examples. In addition, we will devote considerable time to reading contemporary criticism in an attempt to develop a theoretical understanding of our approach, paying particular attention to issues of class and the actual and metaphorical roles of women in the development of the British empire.

Required Texts:

Jennifer Breen, ed. Romantic Women Poets: 1785-1832

photocopied reader;

materials from the Web

Recommended Reading:

Paula Feldman, ed. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997); ISBN

080185430X

Duncan Wu, ed. Romantic Women Poets (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997); ISBN 0631203303

Course Requirements:

short paper (4pp): 20%

longer paper (8pp): 35%

group project: 25%

take home exam: 20%

Course Outline:

WEEK ONE

Sept. 7

Introduction to course

Sept. 9

Critical Reading: Jennifer Breen, "Introduction to Women RomanticPoets, 1785-1832"; Stuart Curran, "Romantic Poetry: The I Altered(in Romanticism and Feminism)

WEEK TWO

Sept. 14

Introduction to computers and Web research in CIC Mac Lab (AQ3145)

Part One: Women and/in Romantic Poetry

Sept. 16

William Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" (in reader); John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (in reader)

Critical Reading: Marlon Ross, "Troping Masculine Power in the Crisisof Poetic Identity" (in Romanticism and Feminism); Karen Swann,"Harassing the Muse" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Library Research Session: in LB 4009

Part Two: Women's Realm and the Realm of Letters

WEEK THREE

Sept. 21

Mary Lamb, poems (in Women Romantic Poets); "On Needle-work" (in reader);Critical Reading: Jane Aaron, "'On Needlework': Protest andContradiction" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Sept. 23

Seminar: Joanna Baillie: poems in Women Romantic Poets; "Introductory Discourse to Plays on the Passions" and "Count Basil" (in reader)

WEEK FOUR

Sept. 28

Dorothy Wordsworth, poems (in Women Romantic Poets); excerpts from Journal (in reader)

Critical Reading: Kurt Heinzelman, "Dorothy and William Wordsworth at Grasmere" (in Romanticism and Feminism); optional reading: Susan J. Wolfson, "Dorothy Wordsworth in Conversation with William" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Sept. 30

Seminar: Charlotte Smith, poems (in Women Romantic Poets);

WEEK FIVE

Oct. 5

Anna Barbauld, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Isobel Armstrong, "The Gush of the Feminine" (in

reader)

Oct. 7

Seminar: Mary Robinson, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Part Three: Women and Reform

WEEK SIX

Oct. 12

Hannah More, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Anne Mellor, "'Am I Not a Woman, and a Sister?':

Slavery, Romanticism and Gender" (in reader)

Oct. 14

Seminar: Mary Prince, excerpts from The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (in reader)

WEEK SEVEN

Oct. 19

Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Critical Reading: "Motherhood and Women's Writing in Mary Wollstonecraft's Novels" (in Romanticism and Feminism)

Oct. 21

Seminar: Helen Maria Williams, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Part Four: Hideous Creations

WEEK EIGHT

Oct. 26

Frankenstein

Critical Reading: Anne Mellor, "The Female in Frankenstein" (in Romanticism and Feminism)

Oct. 28

Seminar: Education in Frankenstein

WEEK NINE

Nov. 2

Frankenstein

Critical Reading: Margaret Homans, "Bearing Demons: Frankenstein's Circumvention of the Maternal" (in reader); and Stephen Behrendt, "Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Woman Writer's Fate"

Nov. 4

Seminar: the filming of Frankenstein

Part Four: Women, Nation and Empire

WEEK TEN

Nov. 9

Ann Yearsley, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Moira Ferguson, "Resistance and Power in the Life and Writings of Ann Yearsley" (in reader)

Nov. 11

Seminar: Charlotte Richardson, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK ELEVEN

Nov. 16

Janet Little, poems (in reader); Leith Davis, "Gender and the Nationin the Work of Robert Burns and Janet Little" (in reader)

Nov. 18

Seminar: Carolina Nairne, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK TWELVE

Nov. 23

Sydney Owenson, Twelve Original Hibernian Melodies (in reader)

Nov. 25

Seminar: Letitia Landon, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK THIRTEEN

Nov. 30

Felicia Hemans, poems (in Women Romantic Poets) and "Siege ofValencia" (in reader);

Critical Reading: Nanora Sweet, "History, Imperialism, and the Aesthetics of the Beautiful," (in reader)

Dec. 2

Conclusion

FINAL ESSAY DUE

Recent re-evaluations of the literature of the Romantic Era have turned our attention increasingly to women's contributions. As Stephen Behrendt and Harriet Linkin comment, the "British Romantic scene . . . included women far more prominently -- and their presence and their influence were acknowledged by their male contemporaries far more generally -- than has been appreciated for the last century." In fact, focusing on women's writing gives us quite a different interpretation of the field of print culture during the period between 1780 and 1830 and calls previous assumptions about the nature of "Romanticism" into question. This course will attempt to map out a different terrain of Romanticism than that made available by reading the nexus of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron and Keats, as we will concentrate exclusively on women writers. Students can expect to encounter both well-known writers -- such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley -- and some of those less well known -- Joanna Baillie, Carolina Nairne, Mary Prince and Anne Yearsley, for examples. In addition, we will devote considerable time to reading contemporary criticism in an attempt to develop a theoretical understanding of our approach, paying particular attention to issues of class and the actual and metaphorical roles of women in the development of the British empire.

Required Texts:

Jennifer Breen, ed. Romantic Women Poets: 1785-1832

photocopied reader;

materials from the Web

Recommended Reading:

Paula Feldman, ed. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997); ISBN

080185430X

Duncan Wu, ed. Romantic Women Poets (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997); ISBN 0631203303

Course Requirements:

short paper (4pp): 20%

longer paper (8pp): 35%

group project: 25%

take home exam: 20%

Course Outline:

WEEK ONE

Sept. 7

Introduction to course

Sept. 9

Critical Reading: Jennifer Breen, "Introduction to Women RomanticPoets, 1785-1832"; Stuart Curran, "Romantic Poetry: The I Altered(in Romanticism and Feminism)

WEEK TWO

Sept. 14

Introduction to computers and Web research in CIC Mac Lab (AQ3145)

Part One: Women and/in Romantic Poetry

Sept. 16

William Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" (in reader); John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (in reader)

Critical Reading: Marlon Ross, "Troping Masculine Power in the Crisisof Poetic Identity" (in Romanticism and Feminism); Karen Swann,"Harassing the Muse" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Library Research Session: in LB 4009

Part Two: Women's Realm and the Realm of Letters

WEEK THREE

Sept. 21

Mary Lamb, poems (in Women Romantic Poets); "On Needle-work" (in reader);Critical Reading: Jane Aaron, "'On Needlework': Protest andContradiction" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Sept. 23

Seminar: Joanna Baillie: poems in Women Romantic Poets; "Introductory Discourse to Plays on the Passions" and "Count Basil" (in reader)

WEEK FOUR

Sept. 28

Dorothy Wordsworth, poems (in Women Romantic Poets); excerpts from Journal (in reader)

Critical Reading: Kurt Heinzelman, "Dorothy and William Wordsworth at Grasmere" (in Romanticism and Feminism); optional reading: Susan J. Wolfson, "Dorothy Wordsworth in Conversation with William" (in Romanticism and Feminism);

Sept. 30

Seminar: Charlotte Smith, poems (in Women Romantic Poets);

WEEK FIVE

Oct. 5

Anna Barbauld, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Isobel Armstrong, "The Gush of the Feminine" (in

reader)

Oct. 7

Seminar: Mary Robinson, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Part Three: Women and Reform

WEEK SIX

Oct. 12

Hannah More, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Anne Mellor, "'Am I Not a Woman, and a Sister?':

Slavery, Romanticism and Gender" (in reader)

Oct. 14

Seminar: Mary Prince, excerpts from The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (in reader)

WEEK SEVEN

Oct. 19

Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Critical Reading: "Motherhood and Women's Writing in Mary Wollstonecraft's Novels" (in Romanticism and Feminism)

Oct. 21

Seminar: Helen Maria Williams, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Part Four: Hideous Creations

WEEK EIGHT

Oct. 26

Frankenstein

Critical Reading: Anne Mellor, "The Female in Frankenstein" (in Romanticism and Feminism)

Oct. 28

Seminar: Education in Frankenstein

WEEK NINE

Nov. 2

Frankenstein

Critical Reading: Margaret Homans, "Bearing Demons: Frankenstein's Circumvention of the Maternal" (in reader); and Stephen Behrendt, "Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Woman Writer's Fate"

Nov. 4

Seminar: the filming of Frankenstein

Part Four: Women, Nation and Empire

WEEK TEN

Nov. 9

Ann Yearsley, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

Critical Reading: Moira Ferguson, "Resistance and Power in the Life and Writings of Ann Yearsley" (in reader)

Nov. 11

Seminar: Charlotte Richardson, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK ELEVEN

Nov. 16

Janet Little, poems (in reader); Leith Davis, "Gender and the Nationin the Work of Robert Burns and Janet Little" (in reader)

Nov. 18

Seminar: Carolina Nairne, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK TWELVE

Nov. 23

Sydney Owenson, Twelve Original Hibernian Melodies (in reader)

Nov. 25

Seminar: Letitia Landon, poems (in Women Romantic Poets)

WEEK THIRTEEN

Nov. 30

Felicia Hemans, poems (in Women Romantic Poets) and "Siege ofValencia" (in reader);

Critical Reading: Nanora Sweet, "History, Imperialism, and the Aesthetics of the Beautiful," (in reader)

Dec. 2

Conclusion

FINAL ESSAY DUE