EL45XT: GUILLOTINES, GHOSTS AND LAUGHING GAS (2014-2015)

Course Aims: To demonstrate how the literature of the 1790s is shaped by historical events and the revolutionary ?spirit of the age? To explore connections in this period between literature and other art forms including visual satire To examine the relationship between literature and other cultural spheres including science and politics To analyse works of literature with attention to content, style and historical significance To develop a broader understanding of a formative phase in Romanticism Main Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and understanding of: * The distinctive character of 1790s literature across a range of genres * The relation between literature and history at this pivotal moment * The connection between literary works and other cultural forms Intellectual Skills -- an ability to: * Analyse works of literature in an historically informed way * Explain how literary content, style and function are linked * Extend literary critical techniques to other forms of writing Transferable Skills -- an ability to * summarise complex arguments * express ideas clearly and succinctly both orally and on paper * present written work in a scholarly form Content: The 1790s saw not only the rise of Romantic poetry but also an escalating craze for Gothic novels and horror ballads, daring experiments in autobiography, a new kind of political fiction, and an explosive pamphlet war unleashed by the French Revolution and the newly active radical movement. This course links the literature, politics and history of the Revolutionary decade, studying poems, novels and plays by writers such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Godwin, Wollstonecraft and 'Monk' Lewis alongside Jacobin and anti-Jacobin polemics, satirical cartoons by Gillray and Rowlandson, and experiments with laughing gas in the laboratories of the poet-chemist Humphry Davy.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

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1st Attempt: 2 x 3000 word essays (each 40%) 1 solo presentation (10%) SAM (10%) Resit: For honours students only: candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit a new essay.

Oral feedback via seminars and written feedback via essay cover sheets and SAM forms.

Written feedback on essays Written feedback on presentation SAM mark/comment sheet

None.