TUESDAY 6-9 pm, SPRING 2002
DR. SWENSON
220 H-SS (x4684)
OFFICE HOURS: MW 12:20-1:20
kswenson@umr.edu
class listserv: poetry-l@umr.edu

A key problem for writers of the Victorian period was determining the function of their art during a time of great social change: industrialization and the growth of a great working class, the early woman’s movement, the rise of new and dislocating technologies and scientific theories, and the emergence of London as an imperial metropolis. In Ruskin’s terms, should great art teach or give pleasure? (The earnestness and weight of much of our reading could be explained by Ruskin’s very Victorian assertion that, finally, "the art is greatest which conveys. . .the greatest number of the greatest ideas.")

Victorian poets from Tennyson to Hopkins, novelists and playwrights such as Schreiner and Wilde, and the critics who read and wrote about literature all considered the degree to which art should engage the social dilemmas of their time and to what degree it should stand apart or offer an escape from them. In this class, therefore, special attention will be given to the (perceived) tension between social issues and the aesthetics of individual works.

TEXTS: The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry (Concise Edition)
Bristow, The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry
Rose, The Pre-Raphaelites
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Everyman)
Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm (Penguin)

REQUIREMENTS:
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Pre-Raphaelite presentation/paper 10%
Final presentation/paper 20%
Journal/daily asgns 20%
Participation 10%

 ATTENDANCE: Attendance in this class is critical. The real "work" of the course happens during class time and, because of our time slot, missing once means missing an entire week and usually one or more writers. For these reasons, after your second absence, your final grade will be reduced; I’ll drop you from the course with four absences.

SYLLABUS: (subject to change; web version is most current)

JANUARY

15 Introduction to the course. In-class exercises.

Wordsworth, "It is a Beauteous Evening," Arnold, "Dover Beach," Tennyson, "Break, Break, Break"; Keats, "To Autumn," "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "Ode to a Nightingale."

22 TENNYSON: "Mariana," "To--." "The Palace of Art," "The Kraken," "The Lady of Shalott," "The Lotos-Eaters," "Ulysses," "The Epic [Morte d’Arthur]," "Morte d’Arthur," "Crossing the Bar"

• Be particularly prepared to paraphrase, discuss, and read aloud: "The Lady of Shalott," "The Lotos-Eaters," "Ulysses"
• See Victorian paintings of "The Lady of Shalott"
• Recommended: Psomiades, "’The Lady of Shalott’ and the critical fortunes of Victorian poetry" (Bristow 25-43).

29 TENNYSON: In Memoriam A.H.H. (Your particular section will be assigned in class 1/22.)

ARNOLD: "Dover Beach"

• Brown, "Victorian poetry and science" (in Bristow; read only sections on Tennyson and Arnold: 139-147).
• Tennyson Study Questions.

FEBRUARY

5 ROBERT BROWNING: "My Last Duchess," "Porphyria’s Lover," "The Bishop Orders His Tomb," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Andrea del Sarto," "Rabbi Ben Ezra"

See "hypermedia" versions of three of these poems

• Study Questions for Browning.
• Pearsall, "The dramatic monologue" (in Bristow; read only 67-72).

12 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING: Aurora Leigh (Books 1, 2, 5)
Read and bring to class the "hypermedia" version of "The Greek Slave"

19 MORRIS: "The Defense of Guenevere" (see Morris’ painting, "Guenevere" in Rose, plate 26).

SWINBURNE: "The Garden of Proserpine"

D.G. ROSSETTI: "The Blessed Damozel," "Jenny,"

• Rose, The Pre-Raphaelites (5-119)

26 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI: "Goblin Market," "A Birthday," "After Death," "An Apple Gathering," "Echo," "’No Thank you, John,’" "’Song,’" "Uphill," "A Better Resurrection," "In an Artist’s Studio"

• Rossetti Study Questions. Prepare one for class discussion.

MARCH

5 Pre-Raphaelite presentations; Midterm Exam

12 SCHREINER (27-234)

19 SCHREINER (235-301)

AUGUSTA WEBSTER: "A Castaway," Mother and Daughter Sonnets

26. NO CLASS FOR SPRING BREAK

APRIL

2 PATER: Preface and Conclusion to The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry

WILDE: "Requiescat," "Helas," "Impressions," "Symphony in Yellow"

See "Image List" of paintings by Wilde's friend, James McNeill Whistler
See a "hypermedia" version of Pater's chapter on "La Gioconda"

9 WILDE: The Picture of Dorian Gray (chapters 1-6)

MICHAEL FIELD (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper): "Preface," "La Gioconda," "The Birth of Venus," "Death, men say, is like a sea," "Ah, Eros doth not always smite"

• Rose, The Pre-Raphaelites (120-127)
• Leonardo's "La Gioconda"
• See Botticelli's "La Primavera" and "Birth of Venus"

16 WILDE: Dorian Gray (chapters 7-20)

23 HARDY: (all poems in anthology)

30 HOPKINS: "God’s Grandeur," "The Windhover," "As kingfishers catch fire. . .," "Carrion Comfort," "Tom’s Garland," "Harry Ploughman"

MAY

7 Presentations

FINAL DURING FINALS WEEK