The Age of Sensibility and Romanticism witnessed a surge of interest in emotional responsiveness, imagination, and individual subjectivity. These inward explorations coincided with a series of political, cultural, and philosophical debates that reconfigured public life and continue to shape our modern sensibilities. Taking taxonomy as an overall theme, this course begins by delineating approaches to perception, articulation, and emotion that emerged during the long eighteenth century. Following this, we will examine seminal texts by William Wordsworth and Jane Austen before embarking on a series of thematic lectures on the city, education and children’s books, and the pleasures and pains of opium. In order to reflect the diversity of print culture between 1740 and 1820, this course explores a variety of primary source material. Literary works, such as poetry and fiction, will be examined alongside pedagogical theory and discourses on elocution and aesthetics. Throughout the course, we will consider our own experience as readers of eighteenth-century and Romantic texts in relation to reading practice during the period. How did rising literacy rates and innovations in textual production and circulation influence literary form, genre, and taste?
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This module, romanticism, will be more difficult for people who can only close read poetry and meter. Much of Prof Kate’s content are treatises, essays from Wordsworth, prefaces and full length essays usually averaging 13-20 pages long. On these long texts, she often only focuses on a few sentences, close reading a select few examples, which often times feels like its not enough. The content is insanely long.
November 25, 2021
