Even though some Victorian women poets, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Christina Rossetti, are part of the canon by now, the prejudice that Victorian women`s poetry is largely about the heart and the home has contributed in a major way to the marginalization of the variety of women`s poetic voices since the 19th century. In spite of much valuable feminist criticism there is still a tendency to ignore the considerable influence that these women poets had on their male contemporaries.
The seminar will explore Victorian women`s poetry in relation to its Romantic heritage as well as to the beginning of modernist poetry. Our discussions will include Emily Bronte`s melancholic lyricism, Elizabeth Barrett Browning`s sonneteering, Christina Rossetti`s eerie piety and erotic language, the social protest of Eliza Cook and Emily Hickey as well as the pre-modernism of Mary Coleridge and Charlotte Mew.
Participants are expected to have their own copy of Victorian Women Poets, ed. Angela Leighton and Margaret Reynolds (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). A Reader with additional material will be available at the beginning of the summer term.
The LK is disigned as a close reading of additional poetry.
Please register for the class by email (stephan.lieske@rz.hu-berlin.de) before the beginning of the semester. |
