GERST 6340

German Romanticism

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

Notoriously difficult to define, romanticism emerged in the 1790s as a literary-philosophical movement that envisioned a revolutionary renewal of life and thought, premised on aesthetic autonomy, a preoccupation with "nature," the exploration of the unconscious, the "poetizing" of the everyday, and unfulfillable longing. In addition to examining the performative reflections of romantic poesy-poetics, we will track the vicissitudes of the movement itself, from its inception to its decline in the 1830s. Authors may include: Arnim, Brentano, Chamisso, Eichendorff, Fichte, Goethe, the Grimms, Herder, Hölderlin, Hoffmann, Kleist, Novalis, Jean Paul, Rousseau, Schelling, Caroline Schelling, the Schlegels, Dorothea Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Schubert, Tieck. Critical works include: Abrams, Adorno, Behler, Benjamin, Bohrer, de Man, Foucault, Frank, Haym, Hegel, Heidegger, Heine, Kittler, Lovejoy, Marcuse, Nancy & Lacoue-Labarthe.

When Offered Fall.

Comments This is a German Studies Anchor Course. Most readings are in German, though some translations exist. Students in other disciplines and languages are encouraged to participate.

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