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2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL32996 Byron and the Shelleys

20 creditsClass Size: 30

School of English

Module manager: Dr David Higgins
Email: d.higgins@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

Pre-requisite qualifications

Grade B at 'A' Level in English Language or Literature or equivalent or an achieved mark of 56 or above in a Level 1 module in English.

Module replaces

ENGL32105 Byron and the Shelleys

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Lord Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley were associates who had many intellectual and cultural interests in common. These interests are central to understanding the complex cultural phenomenon that we now call Romanticism, and all three writers were extraordinarily sensitive to the political, scientific, and aesthetic innovations of the period. Topics to be discussed in this module include the idea of heroic intellectual and political aspiration; Orientalism; forbidden passion; warfare and revolution; attitudes to Enlightenment rationality and political optimism; images of the classical world; and the Gothic. You will have an opportunity to read and analyse some of the most important writing in the literary canon, including Mary Shelley's disturbing Frankenstein, Byron's comic masterpiece Don Juan, and Percy Shelley's utopian verse drama Prometheus Unbound.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should have acquired insight into some of the most important images,
themes and debates of Romanticism, as well as into a variety of literary forms used in the period.

Among the former are:
- the idea of heroic intellectual and political aspiration;
- different treatments of the myth of Prometheus;
- the Oriental;
- forbidden passion;
- different attitudes to Enlightenment rationality and political optimism
- warfare and revolution

Among the latter are:
- the narrative poem;
- the verse drama;
- the serio-coomic mock epic;
- the Romantic ode;
- and the Gothic romance.

Students will thus have acquired a rounded sense of the period from a study of three significant writers.
Furthermore, since these writers were associates, they will be able to draw insight from each about the others, and at the same time become acquainted with an important and useful piece of literary history.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
- the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning;
- research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
- IT skills;
- efficient time management and organisation skills;
- the ability to learn independently.

Skills outcomes
- Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
- Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
- Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
- Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
- Critical reasoning.
- Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
- IT skills.
- Time management and organisational skills.
- Independent learning.

Syllabus

Lord Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley were associates who had many intellectual and cultural interests in common. These interests are central to understanding the complex cultural phenomenon that we now call Romanticism, and all three writers were extraordinarily sensitive to the political, scientific, and aesthetic innovations of the period. Topics to be discussed in this module include the idea of heroic intellectual and political aspiration; Orientalism; forbidden passion; warfare and revolution; attitudes to Enlightenment rationality and political optimism; images of the classical world; and the Gothic. You will have an opportunity to read and analyse some of the most important writing in the literary canon, including Mary Shelley's disturbing Frankenstein, Byron's comic masterpiece Don Juan, and Percy Shelley's utopian verse drama Prometheus Unbound.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	10	2.00	20.00
Meetings	5	1.00	5.00
Private study hours			175.00
Total Contact hours			25.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Teaching will be through weekly workshops (10 x 2 hours) and individual tutorials to discuss essay plans. The workshops will be capped at 15 students and last for two hours. They will therefore differ from 'standard' small-group seminars, and involve a range of activities, although the discussion and sharing of ideas will still be integral.

Private Study: Seminar preparation, reading, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Workshop contribution.
- Feedback on essay plan

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	5000 words (including quotations and footnotes). One essay plan of 500 words is also required which will be returned individually. This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but is a requirement and MUST be submitted. Students who fail to submit the essay plan will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass).	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

One essay plan of 500 words is also required which will be returned individually. This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but is a requirement and MUST be submitted. Students who fail to submit the essay plan will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass).

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 26/04/2017

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