Romantic Literature

Women Writing Romanticism

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Professor Fontenot

Meeting Time/Location: TBD

Office Hours: TBD

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Course Description

For generations, “Romanticism” has been defined primarily with reference to male authors and their ideas: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley (sometimes called the “Big Six”) dominated conversations about Romanticism as a period, an intellectual movement, and a literary phenomenon. As the canon opens by including women writers and writers of color, however, scholars are beginning to question how exactly we ought to understand Romanticism. While we’ll open the course with a brief overview of traditional (i.e., white male oriented) understandings of Romanticism, this course seeks to expand, question, deconstruct, and trouble our conceptions of the term by focusing specifically on women writers of the Romantic period.

Required Texts

Accessibility, Accommodations, & Mental Health

If you plan to request accommodations for a disability, please register with the Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC can be reached by visiting Clark Howell Hall, by calling 706-542-8719 (voice) or 706-542-8778 (TTY), or by visiting https://drc.uga.edu. You’re encouraged to the instructor aware of any accessibility needs the first week of the class, but DRC letters or other accessibility concerns can be brought to the instructor at any point during the semester.

I assume that all of us have different ways of learning, and that the organization of any course will accommodate each student differently. For example, you may prefer to process information by speaking and listening, so that some of the materials I provide may be difficult to absorb. Please communicate with me as soon as you can about your individual learning needs and how this course can best accommodate them, regardless of whether or not you have an official DRC letter. Please feel free to contact me at any point during the semester if accessibility concerns arise.

Course Requirements

You will participate in a variety of assignments throughout the semester that contribute to your final grade. They include:

1. A minimum of three “musings,” to be completed throughout the semester; one must be completed in each of the three units, but the actual due date is flexible (15%). These are 1-3 pages, double-spaced documents in which you will informally bring at least two texts (primary or secondary) from the unit into conversation with your own thoughts and knowledge about the literature. Other than the two required texts from the unit, you are welcome (but not required) to pull from course discussions, readings from other units, your personal interests and reading lists, readings and discussions from other classes, periods, etc. These assignments should not ultimately seek to agree or disagree with our readings, nor need they necessarily put forward a strong argument, though you should feel free to address disagreements or discomforts you have with the texts we read. Rather, you will focus on cultivating a conversation: ask questions, work through difficulties, seek common ground. Read to understand, not to refute.
2. Create and cultivate a “mind map” as a class on Mural (10%). What’s a mind map? More on this later, but for now, consider it a way to track the ideas, networks, and connections you make throughout our class. The class will work together to produce a single map that charts the discussions we have in class each session. The class will be divided into small groups, and these groups will be assigned a specific day for updating the map. It can be updated during class or after, but the updates must be completed before the next class session. Ideally, these maps will help you: organize the knowledge you produce this semester; prepare for writing assignments; visualize the networks of ideas, people, and works that we’re tracing; and cultivate complex webs of thought that will feed into your final project.
3. A short (2-5 pages, double-spaced) introduction of a Romantic-era woman’s text that we haven’t addressed in class (20%). As this class seeks to expand and complicate our definitions of Romanticism, you are encouraged to seek out marginal, unrecovered, or often ignored authors and texts from various digital archives and databases. There is no required length for the text you choose: an advertisement or caricature in a newspaper is as acceptable as a novel. Your written report may be informal, but it should introduce the text to the class in a clear and comprehensive manner, emphasizing how the text supplements our official reading list. Presentations of these assignments will be scheduled regularly throughout the semester.
4. A final project that explores a text, question, cultural artifact, human network, supply network, etc. etc. that you find interesting or compelling (40%). I recommend a little preliminary research to confirm that your choice of subject is neither too broad nor too narrow. The choice of medium is yours: You may wish to write a traditional final paper (12-15 pages, double-spaced 12pt font). You may choose, instead, to create a digital project (a website, for example) that explores one of the marginal authors/texts you discovered during the semester. If you’re planning to apply to graduate school, you might see this as an opportunity to work on a writing sample. Planning to teach in the future? Consider designing a class that deep-dives into one of the connections you discovered through the mind map. I’m open to any of these options and many more. If you choose a format other than the traditional paper, you and I will work together to set criteria for length, word count, etc., as is applicable. We will discuss the final project throughout the semester, and you will be encouraged to experiment, explore, and share your knowledge. Our last class meeting (or two) will be dedicated to sharing our projects and discussing future opportunities for scholarship and community.
5. Participation and Attendance (15%). See below for more information.

Grading & Assessment

This course employs a labor-based grading contract system. You begin the class with an A, and as long as you continue participating in a satisfactory manner, you will receive an A. Satisfactory work includes completing, in a good-faith effort, the assigned reading and writing when it is due (or requesting an extension if you need more time); showing up to class on time; participating in class discussions (see below for a breakdown of participation methods); and maintaining a respectful, supportive attitude towards your classmates. Because this class emphasizes writing, you, your classmates, and I will be sharing writing that we may not have time to pore over or revise. I do not expect that our work will be perfect, but I do expect each of us to produce the best work we can in the time allowed us, and we all should be ready to respond to each other’s writing with enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and grace.

If at any point I feel that you are not meeting these A-level standards, I will reach out to you and we can discuss your progress in the course. You are also more than welcome to contact me with any questions or concerns you have about the grading system or your grade in the course.

Participation

What counts as engagement in the course? A lot of things! We all learn and pay attention differently. Here’s an incomplete list of things that count as participating in this course: showing up to class on time;* taking notes in class; annotating the readings; contributing to class discussions (large or small group);* submitting note cards with discussion questions at the beginning of class; engaged listening; completing reflection journal posts before or after class; answering/asking questions; bringing the assigned reading to class;* reflecting on class topics in your head; discussing course topics with classmates, the instructor, family, or friends outside of regular class time; reading extra materials about our topics outside of class; and much more!

Does this mean you have to engage in all of those activities to fully participate in the course? Absolutely not! Find a selection (two or three nonmandatory in addition to the mandatory ones) that works for you and that allows you to get the most out of the course, and run with it. A short assignment early in the course will ask you to list the ways you expect to participate during the semester, and you’ll have opportunities to self-evaluate. All I ask is that some of the forms you choose have a physical or visible/aural aspect to them: in other words, I can’t grade participation if it only happens in your head and nowhere else. Intellectual participation should be a component of what you do in this course, but not your sole outlet. Do you have an idea about participation that doesn’t appear on this list? Run it by me in an email—I’ll likely approve it.

* = mandatory participation methods

Responsibility and Respect

I acknowledge that racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and other forms of oppression exist. My intention is to facilitate a classroom that is an anti-racist, inclusive, and brave space for all students. Any critical examination of oppression requires us to recognize that
we have been systematically taught misinformation about our own group as well as about members of other groups. It also means that, if we are a part of a dominant group (that is, white, male, upper/middle class, able-bodied, cis-gender and/or heterosexual), we have unearned privilege that carries into the classroom and for which we are responsible. Being responsible means examining our words and actions and considering how we can be allies to others. We cannot be blamed for the misinformation that we have learned and for taking unconscious advantage of our privilege, but we will be held responsible for repeating misinformation or
engaging in oppressive behavior once we have learned otherwise.

It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity we all bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit.

Everyone in the class (including the instructor and each student) is to be treated with dignity and respect. The development of a supportive learning environment is essential for the success of this class. A supportive learning environment is fostered by listening to the ideas and views of others, being able to understand and appreciate a point of view that is different from your own, articulating clearly your point of view, and linking experience to readings and assignments. Our classroom environment will be characterized by openness and acceptance of all voices and points of view. I appreciate your contributions to making this a safe and respectful class for learning and growth.

[Borrowed and adapted from Dr. Jennifer Elkins]

Late Work, Extensions, & Revisions

Work submitted more than 1 hour after the deadline will receive a zero (0). However, I am very generous with extensions. You are busy humans and I only see a very small part of your lives: if our class is approaching a deadline and you think some extra time would be beneficial to you for any reason (including and especially your own sanity), please contact me as soon as possible. I have never rejected an extension request: I’d rather that you take a little extra time to complete a strong assignment with your health intact than that you rush your work and stress out over a deadline.

Contacting the Professor

The best way to contact me is via email. Please wait at least 48 hours for a response, though I will likely answer you before then. You are also more than welcome to come by office hours for any reason (really: I love to chat with you all!), reach out to me via the instant message function on eLC, or by posting on our Slack channel.

A minimum of four times at regular intervals throughout the semester, you will be offered an opportunity to anonymously provide feedback on the course and my instruction. Though you should of course feel free to contact me at any point with concerns, do know that you’ll have a space to do so anonymously if that is a more comfortable option for you.

Administrative Notices

Course Plan: The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.

Audio & Visual Recording: Students may not create audio or video recordings of classes, with the exception of situations governed by UGA Disability Resource Center Policies. When applicable, students with DRC directives or serving as note takers on behalf of the DRC must provide the instructor with a signed Audio Recording Agreement from the DRC before recording in class. All students in the class must be notified by the instructor that another student is creating recordings.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism: All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A Culture of Honesty” <http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/acadhon.htm>. Students are responsible to inform themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.