डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Course Coordinator and Team:                   SES Faculty

Email of course coordinator:                       pcbabed@aud.ac.in 

Pre-requisites:                                               No

 

Course Description:

The Romantic Age is often known as the ‘Age of Revolutions’ on account of the sweeping changes that were taking place during the late seventeenth and eighteenth century in the social, political, industrial and literary sphere. The course will help students understand this age of flux and upheaval through some of the seminal works of literature written during this time. The course is designed to introduce students to not just British Romanticism but also trace its influences in German and French literary thought. The course will introduce students to the figure of Rousseau and his ideas which greatly influenced Romantic thought. It will also discuss the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement in German literature through the works of Goethe and other aspects of German romanticism through the writings of Schlegel. Having thus studied the foundations of Romanticism, the course would proceed to pursue the six most remarkable British Romantic poets- Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron and Keats. Then one would venture into the study of the relationship between Romanticism and its most remarkable sibling, the Gothic fiction. In all, the course seeks to introduce the students to all the hues and nuances of the Romantic Age in Europe.

 

Course Objectives:

• Students will be able to understand the literary debates which gave rise to the Romantic Age.
• Students will be able to understand the interface between revolutionary politics, art and literature in the Romantic age.

 

Course Outcomes:

• The students will develop an understanding of Romanticism as a literary movement.
• Students will learn to analyse fiction and poetry in terms of their political and philosophical underpinnings.
• The students will learn to make thematic connections between romantic literature and literary writings of subsequent periods.

 

Brief description of the modules:

Module 1: Introduction to Romanticism

This module will introduce students to the basic tenets of Romanticism and its uneasy relation with Enlightenment.

 

Module 2: German Literature and Romanticism

This module will look at the short but influential Sturm und Drang movement in German literature through the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.

 

Module 3: Romanticism and the French Revolution

module will introduce students to the figure of Rousseau and his ideas on education through selections from his novel Emile. It will also provide students with a historical background of the French Revolution and the manner in which it influenced the English literary imagination.

 

Module 4: The British Romantic Poets

This module will bring into focus the six major Romantic Poets through their poetry and some of their prose works.

Module 5: Romanticism and the Gothic

This module will study the Gothic and its relation to Romanticism through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Assessment Plan

S.No	Assessment	Weightage
1	Mid-Semester Examination	50%
2	Individual project	50%

References: