Romantic Poetry

1836 political cartoon of a galvanized corpse.

When Shelley's Frankenstein was published, the word galvanism implied the release, through electricity of mysterious life forces. As this 1836 political cartoon of a "galvanized" corpse suggests, electricity had the seeming ability to stir the dead to life. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-119166 (b&w film copy neg.)])

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21L.476

As Taught In

Spring 2005

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

This course examines readings of the major British Romantic poets (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Scott, Shelley, and Keats) and important fiction writers (Mary Shelley and Walter Scott). Attention is also given to literary and historical contexts.