In 1818 Lord Byron defended Lady Morgan`s France against a vicious attack in the Quarterly Review arguing: “what cruel work you make with Lady Morgan - you should recollect that she is a woman - though to be sure they are now .... very provoking - still as authoresses they can can do no great harm.” Byron`s remark encapusaltes succinctly the condescension by which the attitude of male Romantics to their female contemporaries is characterized,, even though in this case Byron is sticking up for a woman writer. The seminar explores how women writers articulate themselves in spite of and perhaps against the prejudices of their male contemporaries in their poetry, novels, pamphlets and literary/cultural criticism. A reader with all the poetry and crticial texts will be available at the beginning of the winter semester. Please get and read the following texts before the beginning of the winter term: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Ann Radcliffe, Northanger Abbey In the Lektürekurs to this seminar we will do a close reading of additional poetry by the poets discussed in the seminar. |
