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    Romantic Symbolic Poem: Coleridge, Shelley, Keats

    Part I: Coleridge (AAALA031A)

    Procházka, Horová

    Summer Semester 2026

    Wed 15:50 - 17:20 (Room 1)

     

    OBJECTIVES

    The course will focus on close reading of selected major poems by the above poets in the context of recent critical theory. It is divided into three semester-long sections dedicated to the work of individual Romantic poets. The first part will deal with the structure and function of symbols in the major poems of S.T. Coleridge: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘Christabel.’ These will be discussed in the context of selected ‘conversation poems,’ such as ‘This Lime Tree Bower, My Prison,’ ‘The ‘Æolian Harp,’ ‘Frost at Midnight,’ ‘Fears in Solitude,’ ‘Love’ and ‘Dejection: An Ode,’ and passages from Coleridge’s major theoretical work, Biographia Literaria. Readings will address the following issues: the forms and functions of subjectivity and otherness (in terms of culture, gender/sex), political implications of and the limits of representation in Coleridge’s poetry. Further contextualization, discussing the shifting functions of Romantic symbolism (existential moments, irony), will include comparisons with the works of E.A. Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym), and Herman Melville (selected chapters from Moby Dick). The closing part will focus on alternative genres, i.e., the prose fragment (‘The Wanderings of Cain’) and drama (Osorio), where we will discuss the symbolism of otherness in terms of revenge, guilt and remorse.

     

    PROCEDURE

    Sessions will open with presentations (15 minutes max.) given by all students on the texts assigned in the week-by-week schedule. Discussion will follow, concluded by the instructors’ comments. In the remaining part of the session students will divide into small groups and present interpretations of a key problematic passage from the assigned text. The passage will be chosen by the instructors and assigned during the previous session.

     

    MATERIAL

    The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge, ed. Lucy Newlyn (Cambridge: CUP, 2002).

    Kathleen M. Wheeler, ‘Kubla Khan and the Art of Thingifying,’ in Duncan Wu (ed.), Romanticism: A Critical Reader (Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 1995) 123-50.

    Karen Swann, ‘Christabel: The Wandering Mother and the Enigma of Form,’ in Duncan Wu (ed.), Romanticism: A Critical Reader (Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 1995) 151-72.

    Sophie Thomas, ‘The Fragment,’ in Nicholas Roe (ed.), Romanticism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 502-20.

    Martin Procházka, ‘Coleridge’s Love Poetry,’ in Michael Gassenmeier, Katrin Kamolz and Kirsten Sarna (eds.), Romantic Visions and Revisions of a New World  (Essen: Die Blaue Eule, 1995) 22-35.

    ---- ‘Between Hoax and Ideology Phantasms and Simulacra in Coleridge’s Theory of Imagination,’ in Transversals (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2014) 108-15.

    ---- ‘Imaginative Geographies Disrupted? Representing the Other in English Romantic Drama, European Journal of English Studies, 6:2 (2002) 207-20.

    Mirka Horová, ‘Romantic Play: From Ludus to Paidia, from Agon to Ilinx,’ Litteraria Pragensia 30:60 (2020) 151-69.

    For Czech students:

    Martin Procházka, Romantismus a osobnost (Praha: Kruh moderních filologů, 1996), kapitoly 1 a 2.

    Zdeněk Hrbata a Martin Procházka, Romantismus a romantismy (Praha: Karolinum, 2005)  

    Some primary texts and most secondary texts will be available in the course e-reader on Moodle.

     

    ASSESSMENT

    Credits will be given on the basis of students’ presentations (ppt or similar, 15 min), their participation in class discussion and a final essay proposal (400 words and selected bibliography). Erasmus and other exchange students sign up under the Erasmus code, i.e. AAALA031AE.

    NB: students who have signed up for the graded paper (AAALA031B) write a long essay (3500 words) for their combined credit and graded paper assignment. Graded paper proposals need to be discussed with the instructors.

     

    SCHEDULE

     

    Week 1 (18 February): Introductory session

     

    Week 2 (25 February): Coleridge’s Love Poetry: gender, sexuality, otherness

    (‘Love,’ ‘Christabel,’ ‘The Ballad of the Dark Ladie’)

                   Suggested reading: Martin Procházka, ‘Coleridge’s Love Poetry’                                        

     

    Week 3 (4 March):     Imagination, Inspiration, Individuality

    (‘The Æolian Harp,’ ‘Dejection: An Ode,’ ‘This Lime Tree Bower, My Prison’)

    Suggested reading: Paul Magnuson, ‘The “Conversation” Poems,’ The Cambridge Companion

     

    Week 4 (11 March):   Metaphors & Symbols          

                                       (‘Love,’ ‘Christabel,’ ‘The ‘Æolian Harp’)

                   Suggested reading: Karen Swann, ‘Christabel: The Wandering Mother and the Enigma of For        

     

    Week 5 (18 March):   ‘Kubla Khan’: dream, myth, nature

       Suggested reading: Kathleen M. Wheeler, ‘Kubla Khan and the Art of Thingifying’

                                     Sophie Thomas, ‘The Fragment’

                                               

    Week 6 (25 March):    Poetic Vision & Politics (‘Frost at Midnight,’ Fears in Solitude’)

      Suggested reading: Paul Magnuson, ‘The “Conversation” Poems,’ The Cambridge Companion

                                       Lucy Newlyn, ‘Introduction,’ The Cambridge Companion

    Week 7 – Reading Week – no class!

     

    Week 8 (8 April): ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’: chance, spectrality, ethics

    Suggested reading: Martin Procházka, ‘Between Hoax and Ideology: Phantasms and Simulacra in   Coleridge’s Theory of Imagination’, Transversals

     

    Week 9 (15 April): Allusions to the 'Ancient Mariner' and its Symbolism:

                                  E.A. Poe: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, especially, chapters 10, 25 and Note

                                       http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma98/silverman/poe/fulltext.html#toc;

                                 Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 42 – The Whiteness of the Whale 

     

    Week 10 (22 April): ‘The Wanderings of Cain’: guilt, sin, myth

       https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29090/pg29090-images.html#stcvol1_Page_285

    Suggested reading: Stephen Burley, ‘The Silenced Voice: Curses and Law in Coleridge’s Poetry’, http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/MembersOnly/CB20Burley.html

     

    Week 11 (29 April): Selection from Biographia Literaria: Chapter 13  

    Suggested reading: Martin Procházka, ‘Between Hoax and Ideology Phantasms and Simulacra in Coleridge’s Theory of Imagination’, Transversals

     

    Week 12 (6 May): Coleridge’s drama: simulacra, otherness, revenge (Osorio)

     https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29092/29092-h/29092-h.htm

    Suggested reading: Martin Procházka, ‘Imaginative Geographies Disrupted: Representing the Other in English Romantic Dramas’; Mirka Horová, ‘Romantic Play: From Ludus to Paidia, from Agon to Ilinx’

     

    Week 13 (13 May): Rector's Day - no class

    Week 14 (20 May): essay proposal preparation 

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    Secondary Material