Module description
This module will explore the age of reason, revolution and Romanticism through focusing on two generations of a single literary family: Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, recently described by one critic as 'England's first family of writers'. It will place the writings of Wollstonecraft and Godwin within the context of intellectual life in London during the tumultuous aftermath of the French Revolution. Their challenge to social orthodoxy – or, 'Things as They Are', the alternative title to Godwin's novel Caleb Williams – created a new fictional form: the 'Jacobin novel'. These novels will be read in dialogue with a range of different genres, including polemical prose, political philosophy and life-writing to explore the relationship between reason and feeling, the debate about the rights of women and the development of literary fame and notoriety in the period.
The second half of the course will examine Mary and Percy Shelley's inheritance from Godwin and Wollstonecraft through fiction, poetry and life-writing. Particular attention will be paid to the ways that works such as Frankenstein and Prometheus Unbound engage with ideas that preoccupied the entire family: from artistic and scientific creation to rebellion against tyranny. A central theme of the module will be finding ways to describe the complex literary relationships between members of the family and their circle, which extend beyond traditional models of literary influence towards a form of collaborative authorship. It will also ask why writers who were attacked in their day for undermining the institution of the family have attracted increasing critical attention highlighting their identity as a family. Topics which students may choose to focus on include literary responses to the French Revolution, the beginnings of modern feminism, literary celebrity, life-writing and literature and science.
Assessment details
Coursework
1 x 3000 word essay
Educational aims & objectives
This module will explore the age of reason, revolution and Romanticism through focusing on two generations of a single literary family: Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Learning outcomes
It will examine a wide range of literary forms, including the 'Jacobin novel', political philosophy, life-writing and poetry to consider the different critical skills these genres demand. It will develop a good knowledge of the contexts of the period and explore the ways in which these authors can be situated within their context. These writers will be read as an example of collaborative authorship and a case study in literary celebrity.
Teaching pattern
One hour lecture and one hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
Core:
The Godwin-Wollstonecraft-Shelleys
Recommended:
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
William Godwin, Caleb Williams
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
(All available in good editions from Oxford World's Classics)
You might also like to begin reading Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry in The Major Works, ed. Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill (Oxford, 2003).