Dramatic Monologue and its Aftermath /from R. Browning to Modernism/ 3301-ZLB2031
The course concerns the development of the dramatic monologue, the central Victorian poetic form, from its nineteenth-century origins to Modernism (E. Pound and T.S. Eliot). Throughout the focus will be upon the ways in which recent theoretical developments have challenged traditional understanding of the genre. The course's aims are as follows:
- to explore the origins of the monologue and to present a history of definitions of the term,
- to consider the monologue as a form of social critique,
- to explore issues at play in our understanding of the genre, such as gender, subjectivity, history, politics,
- to trace the development of the genre through to the present day.
The requirements for the final assessment: attendance and active participation, a short speech for an assigned topic during the course and an oral exam at the end of the semester.
Expected course schedule:
1. Definitions, setting the terms of the debate - Ina Beth Sessions's taxonomic article "The Dramatic Monologue" (1947) and the first dramatic monologues - Tennyson's "Saint Simeon Stylites" and Browning's paired poems of 1836 "Johannes Agricola in Meditation" and "Porphyria's Lover".
2. Origins - two main schools of thought concerning its origins: 1) reacting to the Romantics, the condition of the age, the subjective-objective dichotomy (R. Browning "Essay on Shelley" 1852), self in the broader relational context; 2) a poetic tradition extending back to the early Greeks - Theocritus's complaint of Polyphemus (third century BC), dramatic epistles from Ovid's Heroides (first century BC), Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717), discussing Shakespeare's "A Lover's Complaint" (1609) as a possible predecessor of the dramatic monologue.
3. Origins - an alternative theory, Romantic women's voices: Felicia Hemans Records of Woman (1828): e.g. "Prosperzia Rossi", "The Chamois Hunter's Love".
4. Victorian developments, men's voices: Robert Browning (the question of style, historical consciousness, social critique), e.g. "The Bishop Orders his Tomb at St. Praxed's Church", "Caliban upon Setebos".
5. A. Tennyson: e.g. "Tithonus", "Ulysses", "Northern Farmer Dialogues".
6. D. G. Rossetti "Jenny" and M. Arnold "Forsaken Merman" / W. Morris "The Defence of Guinevere".
7. Swinburne and Victorian morality: e.g. "The Lepper", "Dolores", "Laus Veneris".
8. Augusta Webster, women's voices: "Circe", "The Happiest Girl in the World", "A Castaway".
9. E. Barrett Browning "Bertha in the Lane", "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" /Amy Levy "Xantippe"/ Charlotte Mew "The Farmer's Bride".
10. Modernism and its aftermath, experimenting with poetic voice / multiple fragmented voices of the speaking "I": E. Pound Personae (1909), T.S. Eliot Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), C. Christ Victorian and Modern Poetics.
11. Sixties revival: Richard Howard Untitled Subjects 1969 (e.g. "1915: A Pre-Raphaelite Ending, London"), Edwin Morgan "The Loch Ness Monster", "Hyena" (From the Video Box, 1986).
12. Contemporary dramatic monologues: C. A. Duffy ("Mrs. Aesop" 1999, "Psychopath" 1987) / Duncan Bush "Pneumoconosis" 1985, Paula Meehan "The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks" 1991 / Glyn Maxwell "The Thief on the Cross", "The Beast and Beauty" (1992), Rita Ann Higgins "Donna Laura" (1996).
13. Dramatic monologue and the media: Bruce Springsteen's songs (Nebraska 1982, The Rising 2002), Ken Smith "Brady at Saddleworth Moor" (1990) / Jo Shapcott Phrase Book (1992, "Superman", "Tom and Jerry"), Ai "The Kid" (1979), "Blood in the Water" (1999).
Type of course
Bibliography
Primary sources:
Arnold, M. (1979) Arnold: The Complete Poems, ed. M. Allott, Harlow: Longman.
Barrett Browning, E. (1900) The Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, eds C. Porter & H. A. Clarke, NY: Thomas Crowell.
Browning, R. (1970) Poetical Works 1833-1864, ed. I. Jack, Oxford: OUP.
Duffy, C. A. (1999) The World's Wife, London: Picador.
Eliot, T. S. (1971) Complete Poems and Plays, 190-1950, NY: Harcourt Brace.
Hemans, F. (1849) Poems of Felicia Hemans, Edinburgh: Blackwood.
Morris, W. (1904) The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems, ed. R. Steele, London: De La More Press.
Pound, E. (1926) Personae. The Collected Shorter Poems of Ezra Pound, NY: New Directions.
Rossetti, D. G. (1891) The Complete Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. W. M. Rossetti, London: Elvey.
Swinburne, A. C. (1900) Poems and Ballads, London: Chatto & Windus.
Tennyson, A. (1969) The Poems of Tennyson, ed. C. Ricks, London: Longman.
Webster, A. (2000) Augusta Webster: Portraits and Other Poems, ed. C. Suthpin, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press.
Secondary sources:
Armstrong, I. (ed.) (1972) Victorian Scrutinises: Reviews of Poetry 1830-1870, Bristol: The Athlone Press Univ. of London.
Bristow, J. (ed.) (1987) The Victorian Poet: Poetics and Persona, London: Croom Helm.
Byron, G. (2003) Dramatic Monologue, London and New York: Routledge.
Christ, C. (1984) Victorian and Modern Poetics, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Duff, D. (ed.) (2000) Modern Genre Theory, London: Longman.Fass, E. (1988) Retreat into the Mind. Victorian Poetry and the Rise of Psychiatry, Princeton: Princeton UP.
Howe, E.A. (1996) The Dramatic Monologue, NY: Twayne.
Hulse, M., Kennedy, D., Morley, D. (1993) "Introduction", in: M. Hulse, D. Kennedy, D. Morley, The New Poetry, Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 15-28.
Knoepflmatcher, U. C. (1984) "Projection and the Female Other: Romanticism, Browning and the Victorian Dramatic Monologue", Victorian Poetry 22, 139-59.
Langbaum, R. (1957) The Poetry of Experience. The Dramatic Monologue in Modern Literary Tradition, London: Chatto & Windus.
Leighton, A. (1992) Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Maynard, J. (1992) "Reading the Reader in R. Browning's Dramatic Monologues," in: M. E. Gibson (ed.) Critical Essays on R. Browning, NY: G. K. Hall, 69-78.
Mermin, D. (1983) The Audience in The Poem. Five Victorian Poets, New Brunswck NJ: Rutgers UP.
Mermin. D (1986) "The Damsel, the Knight, and the Victorian Woman Poet," Critical Inquiry 13, 64-80.
Painter Gribskov, M. (2001) The Aesthetics of the Victorian Dramatic Monologue, Edwin Mellen Press.
Pearsall, C. D. J. (2000) "The Dramatic Monologue," in: J. Bristow (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Cambridge: CUP, 67-88.
Pearsall, C.D.J (2005) Tennyson's Rapture: Transformation in the Victorian Dramatic Monologue, Oxford: OUP.
Rader, R. (1976) "The Dramatic Monologue and Related Lyric Forms," Critical Inquiry 3: 131-51.
Rader. R. (1984) "Notes on Some Struct. Varieties and Variations in Dramatic "I" Poems and Their Theoretical Implications", Victorian Poetry 22: 103-20.
Sessions, I. B. (1947) "The Dramatic Monologue", PMLA 62: 503-16.
Sinfield, A. (1977) Dramatic Monologue, London: Methuen.
Slinn, E. W. (1991) The Discourse of Self in Victorian Poetry, Charlottesville, VA: UP of Virginia.
Slinn, E. W. (1999) "Poetry", in: H. F. Tucker (ed.) A Companion to Victorian Lit. and Cult., Oxford: Blackwell, 307-322.
Tucker, H. F. (1980) Browning's Beginnings: The Art of Disclosure, Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Tucker, H. F. (1984) "From Monomania to Monologue: "St Simeon Stylites" and the Rise of the Victorian Dramatic Monologue", Victorian Poetry 22: 121-37.
Tucker, H. F. (1985) "Dramatic Monologue and the Overhearing of Lyric", in: C. Hosek and P. Parker (eds) Lyric Poetry: Beyond New Criticism, Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 226-43.
Tucker, H. F. (1988) Tennyson and the Doom of Romanticism, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.
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