ENGH 642: Seminar in British Literature

ENGH 642-001: Victorian Poetry and Prose: Nineteenth-Century Sexualities
(Spring 2018)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM T

Section Information for Spring 2018

This course is primarily an introduction to poetry of the Victorian period, with a focus on constructions of sexuality.  Famous for wildly popular love poems, the Victorian period has also earned a reputation for silence on matters of sex.  But in fact, Victorian poetry is characterized by artistic experimentation as well as intimate expression, by bracing realism and witty playfulness as well as romantic reverie and haunting spirituality, by dynamism as well as beauty.  And Victorians were fascinated by questions of sexuality and desire, questions to which the era's poetry often gives voice. In this course, we'll be learning how to read poetry closely, with attention to poetic form, and we'll be thinking about how this poetry responds to the cultural, technological, scientific and political developments of the advent of modernity.  At the same time, we'll use this poetry (and a few works of non-fiction prose) as the basis for a wider inquiry into sexuality in Victorian Britain, including versions of masculinity and femininity, same-sex love, desire and transgression, the relationship of body and spirit, eroticism and consumer society.  We will begin with an introduction to a few Romantic poets of the earlier nineteenth century--including Shelley, Keats, and Byron--who became key figures of desire, and key figures for thinking about desire, in the later nineteenth century.  WE'll also consider transatlantic exchanges between British and American poetry in the period.

Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Intensive study of a selected period, movement, or genre in British or world Anglophone literature. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 24 credits.
Registration Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.

Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.

Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.