ENGL 6490

Aesthetics and the Imagination in the 19th Century

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

A survey of 19C British cultural and literary criticism that follows the shift from a Romantic perspective centered on the author (when terms like "imagination" and "the poet" predominate) to the Victorian perspective centered on the viewer (when terms like "beauty" and "the artist" begin to predominate). Our interest will also be psychological and political, as we trace the way notions of the poet or artist imply shifting conceptions of identity and presence, and the way models of aesthetic form embody emerging conceptions of social structure and gender dynamics. We'll end by connecting nineteenth-century writers with the revival of interest in pleasure and aesthetics in literary studies today. Authors will include Schiller, Coleridge, Marx, Ruskin, Pater, and Wilde.

When Offered Fall.

View Enrollment Information