Module: Romanticism in the Age of Revolutions

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Romanticism in the Age of Revolutions
Module Code	LIT1024 (ITS: EL203)
Faculty	English	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

This module focuses on the period from the American and French revolutions of the eighteenth century up to the great European revolutions of 1848, a period generally referred to as the Romantic period, or the Age of Revolution. Students will be introduced to the concept of Romanticism, and study it in its political and artistic manifestations. When students have completed this module, they will understand the importance of the key ideas featured, how they are reflected in the chosen literary texts by key literary figures of the time, and how they influenced our modern conceptions of art and society. A central concern of the course will be to introduce students to Romantic constructions of childhood, and examine why both childhood and the power of the imagination are vitally important to writers and poets of this period.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the characteristics, complexity and contradictions of the term ‘Romanticism’, and the context out of which it emerged.
2. Display knowledge of a range of writers from the period, and their specific contributions and/or reactions to the major themes and concerns of the period.
3. Identify the contribution that Romantic writers and writing of the period made to the development of art (with particular emphasis on literature, notions of childhood, morality, politics and society).
4. Appreciate and write about broader issues relating to issues of periodisation; the relationship between the artist and society; the role of the artist and the function of art; developments in the fields of education, individual rights and intellectual freedom; the transition of natural philosophy to science; and literature’s role in these issues.
5. Display a more nuanced understanding of the craft and creative process of art and/or the artist.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	21	Lectures
Tutorial	3	Tutorials
Independent Study	101	Independent Learning
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	10940	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	James Shanahan	Module Teacher	Michael Hinds, Sharon Murphy

Section Breakdown
CRN	12028	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	James Shanahan	Module Teacher

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Essay	Essay	25%	n/a
Formal Examination	Exam	75%	End-of-Semester

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Introduction:
What is Romanticism?

The Revolutionary Debate:
The Rights of Man: Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine

The Democratisation of Literature and the Romantic Aesthetic:
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads

The Rights of Women:
Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Hannah More

The Gothic and its Critics (1):
Matthew Lewis, The Monk

The Gothic and its Critics (2):
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

The Romantic Child:
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience

Poesy:
John Keats

Anarchy in the UK:
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Byron and Byronism:
A selection of Byron’s poetry

Romanticism and Science:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Indicative Reading List

Books:

M.H. Abrams: 1958, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and Critical Tradition, Norton, New York,
Marilyn Butler: 1981, Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries: English Literature and its Background, 1796-1830, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
Burke, Paine, (ed.): 1984, Godwin and the Revolution Controversy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Pamela Clemit (ed.): 2011, The Cambridge Companion to British Literature of the French Revolution in the 1790s, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Iain McCalman (gen. ed.): 1999, An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age British Culture, 1776-1832,
Duncan Wu (ed.): 2006, Romanticism: An Anthology, Third Edition, Blackwell, Malden, Mass., and Oxford,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None