Tutor instructions: You are expected to refer to a minimum of 6 secondary peer-reviewed sources in the essay, and to use MLA referencing, either 7th or 8th edition. Choose one essay question below to discuss in relation to Jane Austens Persuasion.
1. Romantic writers both critiqued and tried to re-imagine the relationship between human communities and the natural environment. Analyze the representations of relationships between the human and the non-human natural world in Jane Austens Persuasion.
2. Romantic ideas about the innocence of the child, derived from Jean Jacques Rousseau, were revolutionary at the time, and have profoundly shaped contemporary notions of childhood. Paradoxically, during the Romantic period, the economic exploitation of children was extreme. Consider the representation of childhood in one or more course texts, with reference to the social and economic conditions of the Romantic period.
3. One of the roots of Romanticism was undoubtedly the French Revolution. Discuss the influence of the Revolution and/or the revolutionary ideals of ‘liberty, equality and brotherhood’ in Jane Austens Persuasion.
4. In one of the defining statements of Romanticism, Wordsworth described poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Analyse the tension between emotion and reason in respect to Jane Austens Persuasion.
5. For a woman to take up the pen during the Romantic period was an inherently political act. Discuss this statement with reference to Jane Austens Persuasion.
6. Edmund Burke theorized the experience of the sublime and the beautiful in relation to power. Discuss the implications of Burkes aesthetic theory in relation to Jane Austens Persuasion.
7. Isaiah Berlin claims that the Romantic movement led to ”the greatest transformation of Western consciousness, certainly in our time.'(The Roots of Romanticism). With reference to Jane Austens Persuasion, analyze one of the contemporary legacies of Romanticism. These might include notions of art, authorship, subjectivity, or environmentalism.
