230571 Reading English Poetry: From Romanticism to Modernism (S) (SoSe 2009)

The aim of this course is to serve as an introduction to the formal analysis of poetry in general as well as to provide an outline of the major 'developments' and representatives of English poetry from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century (Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism etc.). Particularly focusing on the social and cultural contexts of the respective literary epochs, we will nevertheless also try to do justice to the idiosyncrasies of individual poets and poems.

Since the ambitious attempt to cover both formal analysis as well as literary history will heavily depend on student participation, there will be regular written assignments relating to the poems and topics discussed in class.

A reader containing poems and secondary literature will be available at the beginning of term.