| Unit name | Landscape, Poetry, and Aesthetics |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL20053 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Fay |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit, taught by Jessica Fay, will explore the idealised, natural, and realist representations of landscapes developed by poets, artists, and garden designers in the long eighteenth century. It will appeal to students with an interest in the relationship between art and literature.
As poets moved away from idyllic pastoral portrayals of rural life, ‘picturesque’ theorists developed ideal landscapes, and English garden designers attempted to make gardens more ‘natural’ by applying the principles of landscape art.
Students will study a range of landscape poetry alongside eighteenth-century essays on picturesque aesthetics. The unit will investigate how and why tensions between nature and artifice in poetry, painting and garden design evolved, and how Romantic-period poets conceived of landscape scenery. Students will think about the political and environmental implications of appropriating landscapes. They will also be encouraged to view eighteenth-century landscape art at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to demonstrate;
(1) a detailed knowledge of a range of landscape poetry and debates surrounding picturesque aesthetics;
(2) an ability to reflect critically on the tensions between nature and artifice in the eighteenth century and how these evolved in the Romantic period;
(3) a critical understanding of the social and cultural conditions behind shifts between idealism and realism in written and visual art;
(4) a critical understanding of the evolution of the pastoral and georgic modes, and the context of the wider Romantic re-evaluation of genre theory
(5) skills in academic writing, close textual analysis, argumentation, and evaluation of evidence from primary texts and critical literature, appropriate to Level I/5.
1 x 2 hour seminar per week
1 essay of 2000 words (40%)
1 essay of 3000 words (60%)
Both essays will assess ILOs 1-5
Alexander Pope, Pastorals (1717)
George Crabbe, The Village (1782)
Thomas Gray, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ (1751)
William Wordsworth, ‘Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey’ (1798)
Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Aldoxden Journals (1798-1802)
John Clare, ‘To a Fallen Elm’
