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Global Romanticisms

Module description

This module positions Anglophone literature of the long Romantic era (c. 1750-1840) in a global context, illustrating how this literature interacts with histories of travel, colonialism and globalisation. Across a range of relevant genres, you will explore cross-cultural encounter as they are depicted in a number of regions and locales, and analyse how literary forms of the metropole meet the writings of colonial and global subjects.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Global Romanticisms aims to decentre a traditional understanding of canonical British literature of the period, by equipping you with knowledge and methods to set it in a global history. You will examine what experiences of space, movement and nature apply to global Romanticisms, and analyse contexts such as empire, global trade, abolitionism and science. The module will explore a variety of regions of importance to Romantic era Britain, as well as theoretical issues such as the legibility of indigenous voices in the archive.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an advanced appreciation of specific authors and works of the long Romantic period
• 2. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to relate texts of the long Romantic period to their cultural, historical and global contexts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Demonstrate a sophisticated and intellectually mature ability to analyse the literature an earlier era and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
• 4. Demonstrate an advanced and precise ability to work from the detail of literary texts, with a full appreciation of their formal aspects
• 5. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Through essay-writing, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose
• 7. Through research for module assessments, demonstrate an advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis

Syllabus plan

The syllabus is designed to bring texts of the long Romantic era into contact with relevant contexts that shaped Britain’s position in a global world, as well as writing from the societies and regions they imagine or represent.

Whilst content will vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the module will frame several theoretical issues: these may include topics such as indigenous voices, transport/travel, visual culture, and life writing. The syllabus will also provide concentrated focus on particular regions or locales: these may include weeks on the West Indies, North and South America and India.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Srinivas Aravamudan, Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804 (1999)
• Ros Ballaster, Fabulous Orients: Fictions of the East in England 1662-1785 (2007)
• Elizabeth A. Bohls, Slavery and the Politics of Place: Representing the Colonial Caribbean, 1770-1833 (2014)
• Manu Samriti Chander, Brown Romantics: Poetry and Nationalism in the Global Nineteenth Century (2017)
• Roxann Wheeler, The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture (2000)
• Daniel E. White, From Little London to Little Bengal: Religion, Print, and Modernity in Early British India, 1793-1835 (2013)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE
• Eighteenth-Century Collections Online
• British Periodicals Online

Key words search

Romanticism, Slavery, Orientalism, Travel, Geography, Empire