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Essay instructions:
ENG501, Romantics & Victorians, Coursework assignment 2
Answer TWO questions, one from each section, writing 2000–2500 words in total. Each question is worth 50% of the total mark. Do not duplicate work from your first coursework essay (choose different authors). Essays should be referenced as normal for coursework submissions. Deadline for submission (via Turnitin on Blackboard): by midnight, Tuesday 5th January 2021.
Section A: Romantics
Refer in your answer to this section to the work of AT LEAST TWO Romantic writers studied on the module.
1. ‘I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination. What imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth’ (John Keats). Discuss Romantic writing in the light of this quotation.
2. “The only cure for Romanticism is to analyse it.” (T.S. Eliot). In what ways could Romanticism be seen as a sickness in need of a remedy?
3. ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility’ (William Wordsworth). Discuss Romantic-era writing in the light of this quote.
4. In a letter to Lord Byron in 1816, Percy Bysshe Shelley declared that the French Revolution was “the master theme of the epoch in which we live.” Discuss Romantic-era writing in the light of this quotation.
5. We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Discuss the importance of suffering in Romantic-era writing.
Section B: Victorians
Refer in your answer to this section to the work of AT LEAST TWO Victorian writers studied on the module.
6. To what extent did Victorian literature promote the standard moral values and assumptions of the time, and to what extent did it question them?
7. Discuss the tension between passion and restraint in Victorian writing.
8. How helpful, or unhelpful, to the study of mid- and late-nineteenth-century literature is the chronological focus implied by the use of the term “Victorian”? In your answer, refer to the work of AT LEAST TWO relevant writers of your choice.
9. To what extent does Victorian writing reflect the struggle to reconcile personal desires with societal expectations?
10. Write an essay on the reflection, in the works of Victorian writers, of the period’s increasing interest in psychology.
Please see module handbook for list of works and authors to choose from.
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