Course Syllabus--Fall 2001

Eng 647B-----Lord Byron:

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

Professor: D. F. Felluga
HEAV 430; telephone: 61647
Office hours: M, 1:00-2:30
Class: HEAV 111; M, 4:30-7:20
E-mail: felluga@purdue.edu

 

Course Description

The things said about Byron read like a nineteenth-century version of The Enquirer: he slept with his sister, he was a sodomist, he was a Satanist, he was manic-depressive, he was a pedophile, he was a vampire, he was, as Lady Caroline put it, "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." This course will explore the phenomenon of Byron (his incredible mass-market popularity in the nineteenth century, the attacks against his morality, his influence on the figuration of poets in general) and will also explore in detail all of Byron's major work. In so doing, students will come away from the course with a strong understanding of the most important themes and issues of the Romantic period, the social and market dynamics of nineteenth-century England, and the most influential and entertaining poetry of the period. Students will also read critical work on Byron from the last few decades and will have the opportunity to enter into various debates about the poet and his age both in class discussions and in a final research project.

Note that the McGann Oxford edition of Byron is now available at Von's books. Critical and supplemental readings can be found on our shared Dropbox folder.

 

 


WEEK ONE: August 25, 2014

My way is to begin with the beginning


ADDITIONAL MATERIAL



WEEK TWO: September 1, 2014

our hero's lot, however unpleasant,/... Must be postponed




WEEK THREE: September 8, 2014

I chose a modern subject as more meet




WEEK FOUR: September 15, 2014

This way of writing will appear exotic




WEEK FIVE: September 22, 2014

I want a hero




WEEK SIX: September 29, 2014

Rage, fear, hate, jealousy, revenge, compunction




WEEK SEVEN: October 6, 2014

What, after all, are all things--but a Show?


 


WEEK EIGHT: October 13, 2014

our hero's lot, however unpleasant,/... Must be postponed

 

 


WEEK NINE: October 20, 2014

My poem's epic, and is meant to be


ADDITIONAL



WEEK TEN: October 27, 2014

Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure


READINGS


WEEK ELEVEN: November 3, 2014

I now mean to be serious;--it is time




WEEK TWELVE: November 10, 2014

You, Bob! are rather insolent, you know




WEEK THIRTEEN: November 17, 2014

I hope it is no crime/ To laugh at all things




WEEK FOURTEEN: November 24, 2014

I have effeminated and enervated myself with love


ADDITIONAL

 


WEEK FIFTEEN: December 1, 2014

my Muse by no means deals in fiction




WEEK SIXTEEN: December 8, 2014

I leave the thing a problem, like all things


 


Last Revised: July 10, 2014