Fall 2006

E 363K • Classic to Romantic

Course Description

This is an interdisciplinary course in which students will learn to "read" two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of art (paintings and gardens) alongside poems. "Classic" and "Romantic" describe two important artistic styles that competed with one another during the period of political and cultural upheaval at the end of the English eighteenth century. In this course, we will investigate these styles through the eighteenth-century lens of the "sister arts"--painting, gardening, and poetry. We will look both at how paintings and gardens were described in literature and at how paintings, gardens and poems were designed to express "classic" or "Romantic" ideas. Students can expect to finish the course with an introductory knowledge of late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century English visual culture and a more detailed knowledge of the literature of the period.

Grading Policy

Three 3-5-page formal analyses 15% each
A final presentation 15%
A final 5-7-page research paper 20%
Performance as a peer editor 10%
Attendance and participation 5%
Four 100-word online responses to peer's final projects 5% total

Texts

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Hunt, The English Landscape Garden

back