New Romantic Canons in the Same Old Classroom

Update #2--A Newsletter

August 6, 1996

Edited by Laura Mandell , Dept. of English, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056

MANDELLC@muohio.edu

This Newsletter is not copyrighted. Feel free to download and photocopy any portion or all of it for interested colleagues.

The goal of this newsletter is to provide support for teaching difficult texts--"difficult" because the texts are not easily accessible and because teaching such texts makes new, unforeseen demands on us. Readers are encouraged to help provide such support by making contributions to subsequent Updates; any and all views are welcome.<1>

I. REQUESTS

for information to share among those receiving this newsletter (and please pass it along):

A. Send any information you have, for instance on texts that are difficult to find or exceptionally rewarding to teach, for inclusion in the next Update to Laura Mandell (address above).

B. Meeting the new Pedagogical Challenge: send any advice you have on teaching texts that are difficult to understand or to appreciate.

C. Send any teaching assignments on noncanonical texts that have worked well in your classes.

D. Send successful Paper Topics on non-canonical literature: I have begun a collection of them; if I receive a few more, there will be enough to comprise an extra Update to be distributed over Christmas break.

II. TEXTS for Teaching and Research:

A. CD-Roms:

1. Chadwyck-Healey, English Poetry Database: in the last Update, we reported some severe limitations to this CD-Rom because of its reliance on the outdated NCBEL (1969). Information about how this CD-Rom will be updated can be obtained from Jason Plent, email: plent@chadwyck.co.uk

2. The Victorian Era, The French Revolution, etc.:

Mary-Katie Andrews Lindsey <952LINDSEY@alpha.nlu.edu> wrote on the listserv "Victoria 19th-Century British Culture and Society" <VICTORIA@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu> about a CD-Rom entitled "The Victorian Era":

Many have asked about my "impressions": these are good. The graphics are great; the intertextuality and interlocking glossary and quizzes on them are good. For the price I think this is one of the best things you can buy.

Also, there are more titles [of CD-Roms] that I think some would be interested in, such as:
The French Revolution
The Industrial Revolution
The Napoleonic Era
Rise & Fall of the British Empire
The Thirty Years' War
Nineteenth-Century Nationalism
The 1848 Revolutions
just to name a few. The Art & Music Series includes . . . The Baroque (fantastic; I have this one), The Eighteenth Century, Romanticism, Impressionism, . . . . "The British Literature" Series includes Lyrical Ballads. "The British Literature: Time, Life, and Works" Series includes . . . Dickens, Hardy, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth.

These CD-Roms are available from:

Zane Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 3182, Dept. CS
Dallas, TX 75221

Phone: (800) 769-3723
(214) 746-5510
FAX: (214) 746-5560

3. For a critique of the kind of knowledge produced for CD-Roms, see the recent article in Harper's (June 1996): "Virtual Grub Street: Sorrows of a Multimedia Hack," by Paul Roberts.

B. Printed Texts:

For detailed information about forthcoming texts from Broadview, Univ. of Kentucky, Garland, and Oxford Univ. presses, please request Update #1.

1) More information on Broadview Press:

REMEMBER THAT BOOK ORDERS FOR COURSES KEEP IN BUSINESS PRESSES LIKE BROADVIEW THAT ARE WILLING TO PUBLISH NON-CANONICAL TEXTS

You may request a full list of Broadview's texts in print from the press. That list includes:

For complimentary desk copies or to provide input about books you would use in your classroom if Broadview published them, contact Risa Kawchuk, Market Researcher, Broadview Press (Calgary). Phone/FAX: (403) 232-6863; e-mail: 73244.2317@compuserve.com

Forthcoming Broadview Texts include:

Ordering Information for Broadview in Canada, the U.S.A, and the U.K.:

Canada: P.O. Box 1243, Peterborough, ON K9J 7H5

U.S.A.: 3576 California Rd., Orchard Park, NY 14127

U.K.: B.R.A.D (Book Representation & Distribution Ltd.), 244A London Rd., Hadleigh, Essex SS7 2DE

Canada & U.S.: Phone Collect (705)743-8990; FAX (705) 743-8353

U.K.: Phone 011 44 702 552912; FAX 011 44 702 556095

2) Oxford Univ. Press--update:

a) In the World Classics Series, ed. Catherine Clarke

Notice this series editor's wonderful reappropriation of the word "Classics." This reappropriation may be as revolutionary as the radical extension of the word "classics" from Latin and Greek to English texts in prefaces to the collections compiled by early antiquaries, Thomas Percy (1765), Henry Headley (1787), and George Ellis (1790): their application of the word "classics" to vernacular literature, along with Joseph Warton's use in his Essay on Pope (1756), served to establish (English) literature as an object: "modern classics" and "our--[i.e., English]--ancient classics" designated Continental and English literature before "literature" came to have its modern meaning. Is it a meaning now breaking down, with this new, revolutionary use of the word "Classics"?

Sarah Fielding, The Adventures of David Simple, 0-19-281766-3
Frances Sheridan, The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph
Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote (Intro. by Margaret Anne Doody)

Frances Burney (still unfortunately called "Fanny" in the series):

Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story*

*One reader writes in: I had difficulty getting students to take the novel seriously because of Inchbald's claim in the introduction that she wrote it only to make money. Giving them Wollstonecraft's review of the novel helped. That review can be found in The Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, ed. Janet Todd & Marilyn Butler (NY: NY UP, 1989), Vol. 7: 369-70.

William Godwin, St. Leon 0-19-282833-9

Mary Wollstonecraft

William Beckford, Vathek 0-19-281645-4

Ann Radcliffe, in addition to The Italian and Mysteries of Udolpho:

Maria Edgeworth

Sir Walter Scott, a selection including The Bride of Lammermoor and Redgauntlet

Jane Austen, Catherine and Other Writings (her juvenalia edited by Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray) 0-19-282823-1

Matthew Lewis, The Monk 0-19-281524-5

John Galt, The Provost 0-19-281629-2

Charles Maturin, The Wanderer 0-19-282199-7

Frederick Marryat, The Children of the New Forest 0-19-282725-1

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh 0-19-282875-4

b) In the Women Writers in English, 1350-1850 Series:

The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh, ed. Margaret Ezell ($18.95)

The Poems of Charlotte Smith, ed. Stuart Curran ($16.95)

The Galesia Trilogy and Selected Poems of Jane Barker, ed. Carol Shiner Wilson (containing three novels originally published in 1713, 1723, 1726) forthcoming 1996

USA: Order Address: 2001 Evans Rd., Cary, NC 27513 x
Order Phone: 1-800-451-7556; Order FAX: 1-919-677-1303
Main Number: 1-919-677-0977; Customer Service: 1-800-445-9714
e-mail: orders@oup-usa.org
Editorial, Marketing & Administrative Offices: Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Phone: 1-212-726-6000

Canada:Address: 70 Wynford Dr., Don Mills, ON M3C 1J9
Phone: (416) 441-2941; FAX (416) 444-0427

UK: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Address: Saxon Way West, Corby, Northants, NN18 9ES
Telephone: 01536 741519; FAX 01536 746 337

3) NEW INFORMATION: Routledge/Thoemmes Press

Caroline Franklin, University College, Swansea, has edited two 12-volume sets of reprints of texts published during the period with introductions by Caroline Franklin (unless otherwise noted):

I. The Romantics: Women Poets, 1770-1830; for the whole set, ISBN 0-415-13266-5 (Hardback 650.00 UK; $995.00 US; $1393.00 Canada)

II. The Romantics: Women Novelists, edited also by Caroline Franklin with Peter Garside; the whole set, ISBN 0-415-11351-2 #C0578 (Cost Hardback UK 650.00; US $995.00; Canada $1393.00)

Routledge/Thoemmes also has a series called "Foundations of Literary Theory. The Nineteenth Century." One of the items in this series is:

Leigh Hunt, Imagination and Fancy (1844).

U.K. Address:Routledge/Thoemmes
11 New Fetter Lane, London

You can order things from Thoemmes Press in the US and Canada through Routledge:

U.S. and Canada: Call (800) 634-7064; FAX 800-248-4724
Customer Service: 7625 Empire Dr., Florence, KY 41042-2919

Also see Routledge OnLine: http://www.thomson.com/routledge/routledge.html

C. Anthologies

NOTE: There will be an MLA panel on the recent proliferation of anthologies of romantic poetry, chaired by Susan Wolfson and Peter Manning, on Sunday, Dec. 29, from 3:30 to 4:45, in Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington.

  1. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology, eds. Angela Leighton and Margaret Reynolds, in the Blackwell Anthologies series. 0-631-17609-8 paper. For an examination copy, call Blackwell at 1-800-366-6151.
  2. Romantic Women Poets 1770-1838: An Anthology, ed. Andrew Ashfield, published by Manchester UP and distributed in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press. A desk copy is available by sending $3.00 to St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 257 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10010. Call toll free (800) 817-2525. (Thanks to Alan Richardson for this information.)
  3. The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse, ed. Jerome McGann, published by Oxford UP, 1993; there is also a new edition, corrected. McGann's anthology provides an interesting experiment: it organizes poems not by author but by year of publication. Because it is now available inexpensively in paperback, it might be a useful antidote in a survey class to the Norton organization: students can be assigned "years" to read rather than "Wordsworth" or "Coleridge." Asking students to think about how that reading experience differed from reading the Norton might allow casting a critical eye on the survey class / anthology format as a method for learning.

McGann's anthology would also be useful in a graduate class when issues of the materiality of publishing and canonizing practices are at stake because of in particular two articles by McGann that present arguments central to the organization of this text:

  1. On the anthology format and its ramifications in terms of how we think about author and oeuvre: Jerome McGann, "Reviews and Retropsects: Rethinking Romanticism," ELH 59.3 (Fall 1992): 735-54.
  2. On the distinction between Romantic Poetry and poetry written during the romantic period, see Jerome McGann, "The Literal World of the English Della Cruscans," in Fin de Siècle: English Poetry in 1590, 1690, 1790, 1890, 1990, ed. Elaine Scarry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995); The New Oxford Book contains much Della Cruscan poetry, for a real contrast to the poets of "high romanticism."

Two Teaching Suggestions:

a) One Update reader reports that having students read the 1797 selections--Southey's "The Widow" and Canning and Frere's parody of Southey's progressivist sentimentalism, "Sapphics: The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder"--makes visible one danger that Wordsworth tried to ward off in Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800, 1802), the danger of his poetry appearing ridiculous.

b) Another Update reader reports the value of teaching together the 1812 selections, a portion of Byron's Childe Harold and Anna Letitia Barbauld's 1811. Unfortunately, Barbauld's 1811 is not reprinted in its entirety and the fact that the poem has been excerpted is not stated in the first edition of this collection; a revised edition of The New Oxford Book shows the omission of lines 61-214 of the poem. The complete text of Barbauld's 1811 is available in Perkins and Mellor and Matlak (for info. on those anthologies, see Update #1).

4. One important anthology which has not received anywhere near the attention it deserves collects many texts written for the purpose of guiding women's conduct during the eighteenth century.

One Update reader writes: If you are weary of a-historical uses of the term "feminine," assign readings in this collection.

Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity, ed. Vivien Jones, from Routledge and now available in paperback. ISBN 0-415-03489-2. Call (800) 634-7064 to order.

D. The Brown Women Writers Project:

Julia Flanders, Textbase Editor of the Project, writes:

The Women Writers Project is creating a textbase of pre-Victorian women's writing in English. The textbase currently holds almost 200 texts from about 1500 to 1830, in a wide variety of genres. Paper copies for classroom or research use may be purchased by calling or writing to the WWP at the addresss below, or by sending email to WWP@brown.edu

Snail mail address: Women Writers Project, Box 1841, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912

See the WWP home page at:

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/wwp/wwp_home.html

III. Internet Resources:

NOTE: There will be an MLA Panel called "The Canon and the Web: Reconfiguring Romanticism in the Information Age," chaired by Alan Liu and Laura Mandell on Sunday, Dec. 29, 1:45 to 3:00 p.m., Atrium 2, Sheraton Washington. A special web site called The Canon and the Web has been set up in advance of the discussion:

http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/liu/canonweb.html

The Update editor now has access to many URLs (internet addresses) for the profusion of non-canonical texts on line. They are printed here in two sections with some repetitions in case you wish to duplicate these lists just as they are to distribute to students in classes as part of an assignment asking students to discover the romantic period and/or women writers via online researches.

Overview of Online Texts--

A. The best gateway to humanities resources on the internet is still Alan Liu's

"Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research":

http://humanitas.ucsb.edu

(see Update #1 for more details).

B. One interesting project (in which the Update editor has a stake) is

The Romantic Chronology:

Netscape Version (1.2 or higher)

http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/chrono.htm

Text Only version:

http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/chrono_text.htm

This chronology will be much enlarged by the end of August, before classes start. You can easily download and print sections of the anthology for distribution in classes. Explored on line, it provides links to texts available on line and to more information on specific topics.

Sharon Setzer reports that she has students look up events on the chronology surrounding the publication date of those poems that she assigns to read. Afterward, class discussions involve students remembering different aspects of the historical moment and working together to bring them to bear on readings of the poetry.

For an example of assignments using the chronology, see:

http://www.muohio.edu/~mandellc/eng441/datasn.htm

C. Morris Eaves, Robert Essick, and Joseph Viscomi announce

The Blake Archive,

a hypermedia archive hosted at the University of Virginia that "will contain about 3000 images, 2/3 from the illuminated books, the remaining 1/3 from Blake's paintings, drawings, and engravings." For the archive home page, of the archive, go to:

http://jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU/blake/

D. Neil Fraistat, Steve Jones, Donald Reiman, and Carl Stahmer have just announced a major new Website,

Romantic Circles: Byron, Keats, The Shelleys, and Their Contemporaries

http://www.inform.umd.edu/RC/rc.html

Their announcement of the new site states:

ROMANTIC CIRCLES is organized as a meta-resource that will be open-ended, collaborative, and porous--maintaining and encouraging many potential links into the three main entities: 1) Electronic editions; 2) Scholarly Resources; and 3) Critical Exchange. The last of these sections will include a real-time, interactive MOO, the Villa Diodati.

E. One of the richest sources for links to databases that have on them texts by non-canonical women authors is Adriana Craciun's

Women Romantic-Era Writers:

http://orion.it.luc.edu/~acraciu/wrew.htm"

A portion of that page is reproduced below for easy photocopying and distribution to students.

If your name is not on the mailing list and you would like to receive paper copies of Updates, please send your address to:

Laura Mandell
Dept. of English
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056

or send your snail-mail address to me at: LMANDELL@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu

Go to a list of URLs that you can print out and distribute to students:

Romanticism on the Internet--