The list of Romantic authors reads like a Who’s Who of English literature: Jane Austen, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Mary Shelley, William Wordsworth, and other perennial favorites were active during the revolutionary half-century between 1780 and 1830. In addition to sampling the work of these literary celebrities, we will read The History of Mary Prince, the first personal narrative published in English by a woman of African descent, and portions of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the first great treatises of feminism. We’ll read poems by Robert Burns, who challenged the hegemony of standard English and carved out a place for working-class poetry. We’ll also read and listen to ballads by Burns and other poets who knew and valued the oral tradition of popular singing. The overarching theme is revolution: all these writers shared an intense interest in the overthrow of feudalism and monarchy in France in 1789 and experimented boldly with kinds of writing intended to emancipate men and women from the “mind-forged manacles” of social and cultural oppression. Writing for the class includes a reading notebook with daily entries, occasional quizzes and short papers, two longer papers, and a final project.