ENGL 197: |
Upper-Division Seminar
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The Brownings |
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| Fall 2009 |
| Instructor: Janis Caldwell |
| Meets on: TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM SH 2617 |
| Prerequisites: Writing 2, 50, or 109; English 10; or upper-division standing |
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| This course cannot be repeated and is limited to upper-division English majors only. |
Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are as famous, perhaps, for their love story, as for their poetic achievements. “I do, as I say, love these verses with all my heart—and I love you too,” wrote the aspiring poet Robert to the older and more famous invalid spinster poetess Elizabeth, who was forbidden by her father to marry. And so began a correspondence that culminated in a secret courtship, marriage, and the rising of a drug-addicted Elizabeth from her invalid’s couch to productive poetic partnership with Browning in Italy. It is difficult to interpret Elizabeth’s love poetry without reference to her biography. In contrast, Robert’s greatest innovation, the dramatic monologue, seems designed to mask his private life. This course will compare the Brownings’s poetry, with attention to biography, gender and politics.
Requirements: reading journal, presentation and research paper |
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