English 121

Description

Romanticism has long been identified with democratic revolutions of the late 18^th century, and the social demand that every citizen have a “voice” in the constitution of community and law.  In this survey of literature of the Romantic period, we’ll consider how “voice” gets represented, and to what ends.  Whose voices get heard, and who is spoken about?  What does it mean to speak before the law? How do human voices get heard or silenced in the context of the “voices” of nature (particularly birds and cataracts) and of conscience? Beginning with an essay “On the Discrimination of Different Voices” (by a blind philosopher, John Gough), we’ll consider how literature of the Romantic period attempts to counteract the “silent” medium of print.