Module Directory

We will explore texts from a variety of genres in British and North American Romantic writing. The module focuses on concepts of Romanticism and Anglo-American literary relations c.1790-1890. You will begin by reading a set of recent essays on theory and practice in transatlantic studies.

For example, Wai Chee Dimock`s “Through other Continents” discusses a notion of deep time that reconsiders national literary boundaries, whilst Kevin Hutchings discusses Romantic Niagara in terms of environmental aesthetics, indigenous culture, and tourism, Margaret McFadden looks at women's writing and transatlantic sympathy in “Golden Cables of Sympathy”, and Lawrence Buell enquires about the terms “place” and “space”.

The module is in two parts: Visionary Imaginings (part 1) and Fractures, Connections, and the Imagination (part 2). All the set and recommended texts are provided electronically via Moodle and in Talis, and many are available in printed form in the University’s Albert Sloman Library. We will spend one seminar in the Library’s Special Collections, working with our outstanding, visually spectacular William Blake archive. The syllabus includes some visual works of art. You will participate in the compilation of an electronic glossary of terms and words associated with transatlantic Romanticism.

Research tips each week will help you to develop your investigative skills. Module Supervisor`s Research into the Subject Area: Professor Susan Oliver is a leading scholar in Transatlantic and Romantic studies. Her books include Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and the British Academy prize-wining Scott, Byron, and the Poetics of Cultural Encounter (Palgrave, 2006). She has published journal essays and book chapters on many of the writers and texts taught on this module (e.g., Charles Brockden Brown, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson). Professor Oliver is currently completing a book on 19th Century Transatlantic Periodical Culture, her research for which informs this module.

The aims of this module are:

• To provide a strongly supportive environment for the study of literary and artistic Romanticism and its principles in a northern transatlantic context.


• To develop students’ understanding of a range of critical and theoretical frameworks that enhance their understanding of Romanticism as a movement, building advanced undergraduate-level skills as readers and writers.


• To develop students’ advanced understanding of how literature and the visual arts provided cultural interaction and the exchange of ideas between Britain and North America between c.1770 and c. 1880.


• To develop students’ advanced understanding of how earlier historical periods (c. 1770 – c. 1880) addressed issues that are still important today, including racial injustice; environmental exploitation; freedom of thought and imagination; and political and religious liberty.


• To develop students’ advanced understanding of how fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and painting can be a powerful, effective means of arguing for change.


• To enhance students’ employability by providing transferable skills with practical applicability. This includes teamwork built during in-seminar study and at least one session working in the Library Special Collections.


• To encourage habits of life-long learning through a focused programme of advanced-level undergraduate study.

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate advanced understanding of Romanticism as an important international and transnational movement.


2. Demonstrate advanced understanding of key theories of interpretation and be able to apply these to texts, other primary materials, and creative outputs.


3. Demonstrate mastery of complex interplays between historical, scientific, cultural, and environmental contexts in which Romantic literature and art was produced, received, and circulated.


4. Use a range of study methods that enable self-directed enquiry and independence of thought.


5. Communicate advanced understanding of Romanticism and its principles to peers and others, orally and in writing.

Transferable skills outcomes include:

6. Developing confidence in advanced skills in critical analysis and expository writing.


7. Developing advanced skills in using a range of textual and visual resources, including Library Special Collections.


8. Interpreting and addressing the requirements of assignments at an advanced undergraduate level.


9. Developing self-confidence and skills in working with others to understand a complex and urgent global problem.

The module will be delivered via:

• Weekly 2-hour seminars.