Course Syllabus--Fall 2001

Eng 647B-----Lord Byron:

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

Professor: D. F. Felluga
HEAV 430; telephone: 43770
Office hours: Th, 1:00-2:30
Class: HEAV 210; Th, 6:30-9:20
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 Eisler's biography of Byron and the McGann Oxford edition of Byron are now available at Von's books. The Reader is also now available at CopyMat.

 

 


WEEK ONE: August 23, 2001

My way is to begin with the beginning


ADDITIONAL MATERIAL



WEEK TWO: August 30, 2001

I have effeminated and enervated myself with love




WEEK THREE: September 6, 2001

I chose a modern subject as more meet




WEEK FOUR: September 13, 2001

This way of writing will appear exotic




WEEK FIVE: September 20, 2001

I want a hero




WEEK SIX: September 27, 2001

Rage, fear, hate, jealousy, revenge, compunction




WEEK SEVEN: October 4, 2001

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


ADDITIONAL


WEEK EIGHT: October 11, 2001

But now I'm going to be immoral

 

ADDITIONAL


WEEK NINE: October 18, 2001

My poem's epic, and is meant to be


ADDITIONAL



WEEK TEN: October 25, 2001

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


READINGS


WEEK ELEVEN: November 1, 2001

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




WEEK TWELVE: November 8, 2001

You, Bob! are rather insolent, you know




WEEK THIRTEEN: November 15, 2001

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




WEEK FOURTEEN: November 22, 2001

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


 


WEEK FIFTEEN: November 29, 2001

my Muse by no means deals in fiction




WEEK SIXTEEN: December 6, 2001

I leave the thing a problem, like all things


 


Last Revised: October 27, 2001