This course explores the Romantic period (1785-1832) and its aftermath through a range of largely underacknowledged female poets, such as Felicia Hemans, Charlotte Smith, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, and Emily Bronte, and their work.Their engagement with the social and cultural changes created by the French Revolution produced innovations in poetry and helped form much of what we regard as modern experience and ideas. Throughout the course we will examine how female poets engaged with topics including gender and power; individual freedom; reason and imagination; the re-evaluation of nature and criticism of urban industrialism and a concern for social justice and slavery.
Additional information about this course
No skills or experience needed
Course aim
To explore the lives and work of largely unacknowledged female poets of the Romantic period (1785-1832) so as to examine their engagement with topics including individual freedom, nature, social justice, slavery, gender and class power.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- You will need your own personal email address so that you’re able to login to the WEA’s digital learning platform: WEA Canvas. You will need to be able to understand how to follow URL links to pages on the internet. If you want to understand more about Canvas please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- You will need to be able to follow links to join our WEA live video learning platform: WEA Zoom. If you’d like to understand more about our video learning platform, Zoom please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline and http://bit.ly/ZoomSpec
- This course is for a group of around 15 students studying in a live video-learning platform conference and an online digital learning environment platform from the comfort of your own home.
- This course is suitable for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- analyse the literary and cultural change in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England
- read and critique a range of romantic poetry
- evaluate the role played by issues such as gender, equality, natural rights and liberty in literary and cultural texts
How will I be taught?
- The WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas will be used to provide resources or to support lessons, enable assessment, provide learner feedback and for other activities for individuals away from the course. If you want to understand more about our digital learning platform please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- The WEA tutor will use a range of different teaching and learning methods and encourage you and the group to be actively involved in your learning
- You will be asked to pre-read the poems for each session in your own time
What kind of feedback can I expect?
- A range of informal activities will be used by the tutor to see what you are learning which may include quizzes, question and answer, small projects and discussion
What else do I need to know?
- What you need: You will need an internet connection, speakers, a microphone and a webcam so that you can use our video learning platform, Zoom. If you’d like to understand more Zoom please visit: http://bit.ly/ZoomSpec
- You will also need access to the internet outside of your sessions. You could do this using a smart phone, tablet, laptop or a desktop computer (at home or through a library etc.).
- You will need a personal email address to join the WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas so that you can receive resources, record your progress and achievement and to work with others and share ideas. If you want to understand more about our digital learning platform please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
Pre-course work, reading and information sources
- Pre-course reading is required: resources will be made available to you using the WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- You will have access to course resources and links to wider learning through the WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
What can I do next?
- Progress to another WEA course
- Progress to a course with another provider
Download full course information sheet
