ENGL 23 Romantic Literature: Aesthetics and Ideology from the French Revolution to Frankenstein
The modern conception of the imagination as a force for radical social change emerged, in large part, thanks to the aesthetic innovations of Romantic writers working in the wake of the French Revolution. At the same time, however, the prospect of revolutionary violence made the imagination a dangerous, and intensely debated faculty, as promising as it was potentially pathological, and as likely to produce a Gothic nightmare as a pastoral utopia. This course will examine the richly varied forms of literary and political experience that emerge out of this moment, and that continue to shape modern conceptions of creativity, sexuality, ecology and social transformation. Readings include works by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Percy and Mary Shelley, John Keats, and Thomas de Quincey.
Instructor
Garrison
Department-Specific Course Categories
Course Group II