The Romantic Movement (Spring 2014)


Prof. Wendy C. Nielsen


Friedrich, The Wanderer
Kaspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer (1818)


Tuesdays 5:30-8 in DI 432 (English Seminar Room)

http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/14rom.html

Prof. Wendy Nielsen
Office Hours: drop in Tuesdays 4-5:30, Thursdays 10:30-11:30 & 12:45-1:15, & by appt. in Dickson Hall 352.
Email: nielsenw@mail . . . 

Texts available at University Bookstore (please use translations selected here):

* on Reserve at Sprague Library under ENLT 536 (limit one day)

Additional texts available online and on Canvas:

Course Description: What were French and German authors writing about before and after Shelley composed Frankenstein? The European Romantic Movement aims to foster understanding of the term “Romantic,” especially as it relates to the fiction, prose, poetry, and drama in Britain, France, Germany, and abroad ca. 1780 to 1830. We will read harbingers of the European Romanticism (Rousseau’s Second Discourse, and Goethe’s Sufferings of Young Werther); key texts of the period (Goethe’s Faust, Shelley's Frankenstein, and Hoffmann's Sandman); poetry by Droste-Hülshoff, Novalis and Heine; and overlooked writers and artists who influenced major issues of the day like the French Revolution, colonialism, and women’s rights. The class will discuss themes common to Romantic-era writing, such as nature, utopia, freedom, the grotesque, and the uncanny across several fictional genres (poetry, drama, prose, memoir, and novellas). Students will leave the course with an appreciation for the ways in which literary movements transcend national and generic borders.

Requirements: Click here to get an explanation of my shorthand on Style issues, and my criteria for grading: http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/correction.html

#1: The Spirit of a Democratic Classroom: Respect, Collegiality, and Integrity

#2: Participation (10%) incl. regular attendance, timely completion of weekly reading, contributions to class discussions, 1 presentation of a Position Paper, and participation in peer review sessions. Participation in the online Discussion Forums can contribute towards your overall attendance grade.

#3: Final Position Paper Portfolio (40%): After reading the assigned material, you need to arrive to seminars with a position in mind. In French called a précis, in German a Referat, the position paper is an academic tradition whereby seminar participants share their thoughts in writing (ca. 1-2 pages/250-400 words). At the very least, a position paper summarizes the salient critical points of a scholarly debate and connects these to the reader's own thoughts on the primary text, but ideally, a position paper points towards the reader's critique-in-process, or a mature critical perspective on both primary and critical text, opening the way for the seminar to discuss and debate themes that may call secondary authors' perspectives into question. Another way to think about a position paper is as a provocation: it should provoke readers to new ways about thinking about a complex issue. You should use position papers as opportunities to hone your critical perspective, as well as your academic writing persona. The ability to say something intelligent about texts in a short amount of time is a skill that English graduate students are expected to demonstrate in several different forums: in seminars, in theses defenses, in oral presentations at conferences, and ultimately, in front of the classroom as professors. If you are struggling for an approach to take for your paper, consider beginning with a critical question; closely analyzing a specific passage in detail (examining issues such as subtext, language, symbolism, etc.); or arguing against a critical author's assumptions. 

Nota Bene: All primary and secondary sources should be cited according to MLA. Sometimes we will be reading more than one critical text. Please choose your own focus: you do not have to write about every single text we read, but should form a critical perspective that might apply to one or more texts. Every seminar participant will write a position paper on assigned days and submit it to the instructor (hard copy, typed, stapled, 12 pt. font in Times New Roman, with 1" margins). Once a semester every student will present his or her position paper to the class. On these occasions, students should come prepared to read the paper aloud and to contribute in a significant way to the class discussion. In order to make these works in progress pedagogically effective for all seminar participants, please post your Position Papers on Canvas in addition to handing in a hard copy to the instructor. 


Evaluation: I will read your position papers (hard copy only), comment on them, and provide check, check plus, or check minuses as pre-evaluative criteria. At the end of the semester, a portfolio of your position papers will be evaluated for a letter grade (see below). The presentation of your position paper is not graded, but you must do it in order to receive a satisfactory Participation grade. Owing to scheduling difficulties, I am afraid I am NOT able to read late position papers, although you may include them as part of your Final Position Paper Portfolio. I will NOT accept emailed Position Papers. If you cannot attend class, I suggest you ask a fellow participant to bring your hard copy to class. If you are unable to turn in your Position Paper on time, I suggest you ask a fellow student to read and evaluate the work-in-progress. 
The Final Position Paper Portfolio will include a critical introduction, your TOP 4 Position Papers, the originals of these mini essays with my comments on them, and at least 1 revision that highlights your editing skills. If you wish to submit all 5 assigned Position Papers, you may. The cover letter should self-evaluate your own position papers and address the following questions: How do these position papers show the independence of your critical thinking? How would you describe your (evolving) academic writing persona? What have you learned about reading, researching, and the field of English? In what ways have these writing exercises prepared you to become a better student as well as to become a better researcher? How have these writing exercises aided your thinking this semester? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your position papers? Which is your best position paper, and why? What grade would you give yourself for this assignment? Immediately following the cover letter, place a well-edited revision of one of your position papers that highlights how well you can transform your writing from rough to final copy. Even though this is the only required revision, I encourage you to revise all papers carefully. Please include all originals with my comments on them. You should also include any position papers that you're handing in late. Here's a final list of everything you should include: 1) Cover letter; 2) Edited Revision; 3) Original Position Papers with my comments on them; 4) Any late material. Please simply staple everything together, or use a binder clip. No cover pages or folders, please. 

#4: Annotated Bibliography (10%): Annotate 3 recent (less than 10 years old) peer-reviewed sources for your Final Essay. Put the full citation of the article, book, or book chapter first, and then answer the following questions, in about 5 to 10 sentences: 1) What is the author's argument? 2) How does the author support this argument? What kinds of evidence does she use? 3) What does the author hope to accomplish by writing this piece? What kinds of biases might the author have? 4) Who is the author's audience? To what kind of scholarly debate is she contributing? 5) In what ways is this piece relevant for your own research question? You should carefully distinguish (in each and every sentence) which ideas can be attributed to one of these three authors, and which ideas are the product of your own thinking. You must cite every time you report an author's ideas, not only by citing page numbers, but also by indicating through words and phrasing ("According to Smith's book Literature . . . "; "The author of this article argues . . . ") that you are reporting second-hand information. Failure to do so will result in a point being taken off every sentence that does not properly cite and attribute the source of ideas (a core tenet of academic writing).

#5: Final Essay, 12-20 pages on 1 or 2 Romantic-era texts (40%): The Final Essay should represent new, innovative, and provocative research, reading, and thinking on at least one piece read in this course (or two, or a combination of one piece from this course material, and another work we did not read in this course). As with any seminar paper, you should begin with a question that is the product of critical thinking, close reading of the primary text, and extensive outside reading of scholarly sources, all of which should be carefully documented in your paper (I will not put a number on the required number of secondary articles, but excellent scholars try to be thorough; in any case, I will examine the quality of your research).  Please be sure to distinguish your ideas from those of other scholars and thinkers (as with the Annotated Bibliography, failure to do so will result in a point being taken off every sentence that does not properly cite and attribute the source of ideas). Perhaps the idea for your Final Essay will emerge because you wish to argue against another author, scholar, or interpretive tradition. It could be that the Final Essay starts with one of your Position Papers. In evaluating your essay, I will award a maximum of 50 points forstyle (syntax, grammar, punctuation), and up to 50 points for content (originality, introduction, thesis/argument, paragraphs with main idea, logical structure, supporting evidence, sophistication/clarity, and conclusion). You may submit a self-addressed stamped envelope with your final essay if you would like it back before next semester (or pick it up next semester before Halloween).

Some Policies: Tentative schedule subject to change; see http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/14rom.html for updates
Date
Class Activities
Homework Assignment
T 1/21
Course + student intro.; Canvas; Timeline; What is Romanticism? Romantic Art;  Ex.: Blake; French Revolution; Women Warriors in Romantic Drama; videos: Coppola's Marie Antoinette, The Scarlet Pimpernel  Read T. Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (1776); Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789); Gouges, Rights of Woman and Citizen (1791; online); Time Line of the French Revolution by Marxists.org; and Marie Antoinette: the Last Queen of France (optional)
Unit I: PRE-ROMANTICISM
T 1/28
Last week's material; PP signup; Nature v. Society, the Noble Savage, & Politics in + Your Ques. about Rousseau's Discourse; Scholarship on Rousseau; Your RQ on Rousseau Read Rousseau, Discourse; read one or more of the following: Moran or Saccarelli (under Files > Rousseau's Discourse); Discussion Forum Rousseau: Post one or more questions about today's reading online, and answer a question if you like (optional). 
T 2/4
Review: Rousseau in Context; Siddons; Goethe, Werther; & Irony; Sensibility Read Goethe, Werther; Position Paper #1: Werther due--read Fetzer, one or more of the articles on Werther (Bennett, Schiffman, Siebers, and/or Sondrup), and write a position paper that clarifies your position on a scholastic debate. Cf. Hill. See Final Position Paper Portfolio above for full assignment description.
Unit II: EUROPEAN ROMANTIC POETRY
T 2/11
Review: Research Questions on Rousseau & Werther; What is the Romantic Movement? Hugo's "Preface to Cromwell"; Romantic Irony and Nature in Chénier, Lamartine,  and Goethe Fr. Rom.; Myth, Nature, and Religion in Goethe, Hölderlin,  and Nerval Read Chénier, "When the somber slaughterhouse . . ," Lamartine "The Village Bell" (70-81 in French Poetry); from German Poems: Goethe: "Little Rose on the Heath" (4) + alt. trans. of "Heidenröslein Nerval, "Delfica" (95-7 in Applebaum, French Poetry); from Applebaum, German Poetry: Goethe: "Elf King" (17-9) + alt. trans. of "Erlkönig"; Hölderlin: "Hyperion's Song of Destiny," "When I was a boy," "Halfway through Life" (55-9) + alt. trans. of Hölderlin; Hugo, "Preface to Cromwell; "& read one or more of the following: Jakobson, Kneller, and/or Strauss (see Ferber); Discussion Forum Romantic Poetry: Post one or more questions about today's reading online, and answer a question if you like (optional)
T 2/18
Review: The Subject in Hölderlin; Dead/Deadly Women in Droste-Hülshoff, Hugo, Musset, Novalis, Heine, and Goethe; Research Questions? Read Hugo 89-93 and Musset, "On a Dead Woman" (99-103 in Applebaum, French Poetry); from German Poems: Goethe, "The Fisherman" (12-5); Heine: "I don't know . . . "(141-43), "Morphine" (146); alt. trans. H. Heine, "Ich weiß nicht . . . " (141-43) and "Morphine;" Schiller: "The Girl from a Strange Land" (39) & "Longing" (43-5); J. v. Eichendorff, "The Happy Wanderer" (109), "Longing" (111), & "The Hermit" (113); A. v. Droste-Hülshoff, "The Boy on the Moor" (127-29) and "In the Moss" (131-33) + alt. trans. of "Im Moose"; & Novalis: "Must the morning . . . " (61-3), "I am journeying over" (63); Position Paper #2: Romantic Poetry due (please write a position paper that clarifies your position on a scholastic debate on one of today's poems only), by drawing on the work of Blackmore (see Ferber), Feuerlicht, Helfer, Rosa, and/or Saul
Unit III: DRAMA IN TRANSLATION
T 2/25
Sheridan's Pizarro (1799, a translation of August von Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru, 1796)
Read Sheridan, Pizarro; Position Paper #3: Pizarro due after forming a position on the scholastic debate represented by Carlson, Couture, McPherson, and/or Van Kooy
Unit IV: ROMANTICISM & NATURAL PHILOSOPHY (Naturphilosophie)
T 3/4
The Uncanny, Androids, and Puppets in the Romantic Imagination
Read E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman, Freud, "The Uncanny," and Kleist, "The Puppet Theater" (p. 25 in pdf, 411 in text); Position Paper #4: Hoffmann and/or Kleist due, creating a clear position on a scholastic issue by reading about Hoffmann (Bresnick, Castein, Jennings, Tatar, or Todd), Kleist (Theisen, Wells; see Kleist folder in Files), and/or both (McIntyre [Hoffmann folder], Wilson [Kleist folder])
T 3/18
Faust I Read Goethe 9-119 (245/"Prologue in Heaven" through - 4220/thr. "Walpurgis"), 126-35 (4000/Dreary Day - 4615/first few lines of Faust II, "Charming Landscape")
T 3/25
Faust II, Acts I-III
Read Goethe 142-46 (4890-5060/Imp. Res.), 170-79 (5970/end of Spac. Hall + Pleasance - 6305/Dark Gallery), 182-86 (6380-6565/Hall), 194-213 (Laboratory) + 219-258 (6820-7490 - 9125/Palace); & Hamlin, "Faust in Performance"; Discussion Forum Faust: Post one or more questions about today's reading online, and answer a question if you like (optional)
T 4/1
end of Faust II
Position Paper #5: Faust due; Read Goethe 259-71 (9130/Courtyard - 9575) + 275-85 (9695-10035/end of Act III), & 313-344 (11045-12110/all of Act V); & use Brown, Hoezel, Molnar, or any of the essays at the back of the book to construct a position on a scholastic debate
T 4/8
Authorship in Frankenstein
Read Shelley (ALL) P. B. Shelley, preface to 1818 edition of Frankenstein (5-6); Mary Shelley, introduction to 1831 edition of Frankenstein (165-169); Charles Robinson, "Texts in Search of an Editor" (198-204); Anne Mellor, "Choosing a Text of Frankenstein to Teach" (204-211); & if you can find an original position on any debate between Bewelll, Marshall, Reese, and/or Wylie, you could write a Position Paper on Frankenstein/as a Wild Card (substitute for any of the previous Position Papers as your 4th or 5th Position Paper, but you will not have the benefit of instructor feedback, unless you can pick it up on campus on Thursday). Everyone: Read at least one critical essay on Frankenstein (Bewelll, Marshall, Reese, and/or Wylie)
T 4/15
Discussion of Portfolios; Library Research Methods Position Paper Portfolio due
T 4/22
Kleist, "The Chilean Earthquake;" Discussion of Annotated Bibliographies, Research Methods Read Kleist, "The Chilean Earthquake" (scroll down to pg. 18 in pdf, 312 in text for short story) and Rousseau's Letter to Voltaire (online); Annotated Bibliography due
T 4/29
Peer Review session Drafts of Final Essay due
T 5/6
NO CLASS!

T 5/13

Final Essay due by 7:30pm online

Works Cited:

Barker-Benfield, G. J. The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 1992.

Batley, Edward. “Werther's Final Act of Alienation: Goethe, Lessing, and Jerusalem on the Poetry and Truth of Suicide.” The Modern Language Review 87.4 (Oct. 1992): 868-78.

Bennett, B. "Goethe's Werther: Double Perspective and the Game of Life." GLQ 53.1 (Jan. 1980): 64-81.

Blackmore, E. H. and A. M. "Victor Hugo's Poetry." A Companion to European Romanticism. Ed. Michael Ferber. Malden: Blackwell, 2005. 208-223.

Bresnick, A. "Prosopoetic Compulsion: Reading the Uncanny in Freud and Hoffmann." Germanic Review 71.2 (Spr. 1996): 114-32.

Brown, J. K. "Faust." Cambridge Companion to Goethe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 84-100. Print.

Brown, Jane K. Goethe's Faust: The German Tragedy. Cornell University Press, 1986. Print. 

Carlson, Julie A.  "Trying Sheridan's Pizarro." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 38.3/4 (Fall 1996): 359-378.

Castein, Hanne. "'Zerrbilder des Lebens' E. T. A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann and the Robot Heritage." Publications of the English Goethe Society 67 (Jan. 1997): 43-54. Print.

Couture, Selena. "Siddons's Ghost: Celebrity and Gender in Sheridan's Pizarro." Theatre Journal 65.2 (May 2013): 183-196. Print.

Cowles, Mary Jane. "The Economy of Maternal Loss in Rousseau's Confessions." L'Esprit Créateur 39.2 (Summer 1999): 11-19.

Engel, Steven T. “Rousseau and Imagined Communities.” The Review of Politics 67.3 (2005): 515-537. Print.

Ferber, Michael, ed. A Companion to European Romanticism. Malden: Blackwell, 2005.

Fetzer, John Francis. "Romantic Irony." European Romanticism: Literary Cross-Currents, Modes, and Models. Ed. Gerhart Hoffmeister. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1990. 19-36.

Feuerlicht, Ignace. “Heine's "Lorelei": Legend, Literature, Life.” The German Quarterly 53.1 (1980): 82-94. Print.

Hamlin, C. "Faust in Performance." Theater 32.1 (2002): 117-36. Web.

Helfer, Martha B. “The Male Muses of Romanticism: The Poetics of Gender in Novalis, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Eichendorff.” German Quarterly 78.3 (2005): 299-319. Web.

Herbold, S. "Rousseau's Dance of Veils: The Confessions and the Imagined Woman Reader." Eighteenth-Century Studies 32.3 (Spring 1999): 333-53.

Higonnet, Margaret. "Suicide: Representations of the Feminine in the Nineteenth Century." Poetics Today 6.1-2 (1985): 103-118.

Hill, David. ed. The Literature of the Sturm and Drang. SC: Camden House, 2002.

Hoezel, A. "The Conclusion of Goethe's Faust." The German Quarterly 55.1 (Jan. 1982): 1-12.

Hugo, Victor. "Preface to Cromwell." Prefaces and Prologues. NY: P. F. Collier and Son, 1960. 337-87. Print.

Jakobson, Roman, Grete Lübbe-Grothues, and Susan Kitron. “The Language of Schizophrenia: Hölderlin's Speech and Poetry.” Poetics Today 2.1a (1980): 137-144. Print.

Jennings, Lee B. "Blood of the Android: A Post-Freudian Perspective on Hoffmann's Sandmann." Seminar 22.2 (May 1986): 95-111. Print.

Kneller, John W. “Nerval and Rousseau.” PMLA 68.1 (1953): 150-169. Print.  


Marshall, David. "Frankenstein, or Rousseau's Monster: Sympathy and Speculative Eyes." The Surprising Effects of Sympathy: Marivaux, Diderot, Rousseau, and Shelley. Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 1988. 178-233.

McIntyre, Allan J. "Romantic Transcendence and the Robot in Heinrich von Kleist and E. T. A Hoffmann." The Germanic Review 54.1 (1979): 29-34. Print.

McPherson, H. "Caricature, Cultural Politics, and the Stage: The Case of Pizarro." The Huntington Library Quarterly 70.4 (2007): 607-30.

Mellor, Anne. English Romantic Irony. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1980.

Molnár, G. v. "Hidden in Plain View: Another Look at Goethe's Faust." ECS 35.3 (2002): 469-96.

Moran, Francis. “Of Pongos and Men: Orangs-Outang' in Rousseau's 'Discourse on Inequality'.” The Review of Politics 57.4 (1995): 641-664. Print.

Nielsen, Wendy C. “Staging Rousseau’s Republic: French Revolutionary Festivals and Olympe de Gouges.” The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 43.3 (Fall 2002): 268-85.

Riley, Patrick. "The Inversion of Conversion: Rousseau's Rewriting of Augustinian Autobiography." Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture  28 (1999): 229-255.

Rosa, M. "Romanticism in A. v. Droste-Hülshoff" MLJ 32.4 (1948): 279-87.

Saccarelli, Emanuele. “The Machiavellian Rousseau: Gender and Family Relations in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.” Political Theory 37.4 (2009): 482–510. Print.

Saul, Nicholas. "Goethe the Writer and Literary History." Cambridge Companion to Goethe. Ed. Lesley Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 13-39.

- - -. “Morbid? Suicide, Freedom, Human Dignity, and the German Romantic Yearning for Death.” Historical Reflections 32.3 (2006): 579-99.

Sondrup, Steven. "Wertherism and Die Leiden des jungen Werthers." European Romanticism: Literary Cross-Currents, Modes, and Models. Ed. Gerhart Hoffmeister. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1990. 163-79.

Sorenson, Leonard. “Natural Inequality and Rousseau's Political Philosophy in His Discourse on Inequality.” The Western Political Quarterly 43.4 (1990): 763-788. Print.

Steinhauer, Harry. "Goethe's Werther after Two Centuries." University of Toronto Quarterly 44.1 (Fall 1974): 1-13.

Strauss, Jonathan. "The Poetry of Loss: Lamartine, Musset, and Nerval." A Companion to European Romanticism. Ed. Michael Ferber. Malden: Blackwell, 2005. 192-207.

Tantillo, A. O. "Goethe's Botany and His Philosophy of Gender." Eighteenth-Century Life 22.2 (1998) 123-138.

Tartar, M. "E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'Der Sandman:' Reflection and Romantic Irony." MLN 95.3 (Apr. 1980): 585-608. Print.

Theisen, Bianca. "Dancing with Words. Kleist's 'Marionette Theatre'." MLN 121.3 (2006): 522-9. Print.

Todd, J. M. "The Veiled Woman in Freud's 'Das Unheimliche." Signs 11.3 (Spring 1986): 519-28.

Van Kooy, Dana. "Darkness Visible: The Early Melodrama of British Imperialism and the Commodification of History in Sheridan's Pizarro." Theatre Journal 64.2 (2012): 179-195. Print.

Walker, Joyce S. “Sex, Suicide, and the Sublime: A Reading of Goethe's Werther.” Monatshefte fur Deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 91.2 (Summer 1999): 208-23.

Wells, G. A. "The Limitations of Knowledge: Kleist's 'Über Das Marionettentheater'." Modern Language Review 80.1 (1985): 90-96. Print.

Wilson, Eric G. "Matter and Spirit in the Age of Animal Magnetism." Philosophy and Literature 30.2 (2006): 329-45. Print.

Wylie, Ian. "Romantic Responses to Science." Companion to Romanticism. Ed. Duncan Wu. Malden: Blackwell, 1999. Print.