Romantic Movement Spring 2007

The Romantic Movement (Spring 2007)

Caspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer (1818, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle, Hamburg)

The Romantic Movement (Spring 2007: 14888)
R 05:30-08:00PM in DI 179
http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/romanticgrad07.html
http://english.montclair.edu

Prof. Wendy Nielsen
Dickson Hall 324
Office Hours: M 11:30-1, R 4-5:30, & by appt.
Email: nielsenw@mail . . .

Texts available in University Bookstore:

Five Great English Romantic Poets, 5 vols. (Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth), Dover
Great German Poems of the Romantic Era, ed. and trans. Stanley Appelbaum, Dover
J. W. v. Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther, Norton
J. W. v. Goethe, Faust, trans. W. Kaufmann, Anchor
J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, Penguin
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Norton Critical ed.

Primary Texts available as pdf files on Blackboard (Bb), Library Reserves (Res.), and/or via online links:

E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman from Tales (Bb & Res.)
V. Hugo, "Preface to Cromwell" from Prefaces and Prologues (Bb & Res.)
E. Inchbald, The Massacre (online)
J.-J. Rousseau, "Letter to M. D'Alembert" from Politics and the Arts (Bb & Res.)
W. Wordsworth, "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" (online)

Secondary Critical Readings available on online syllabus (when direct link and on campus network avail.), off campus via Blackboard <http://montclair.blackboard.com>, off campus via a Proxy Server <http://library.montclair.edu/remote_access.html>, through Articles and More <http://library.montclair.edu/articlesandmore.html> (go to selected database: JSTOR, Project Muse, etc.), and sometimes on Library Reserves

Course description:

The Romantic Movement is about European Romanticism, the literary period circa 1789-1832 that began in Germany (with the Storm and Stress Movement) and migrated to England and France. The first few weeks of the course will focus on the major genre of Romanticism, poetry, and introduce students to this period and its major characteristics. Most of the course will focus on the Continental influences on Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein, including (but not limited to) Rousseau and Goethe. Some thematic issues we will cover include nature versus civilization, utopianism, the Gothic, madness, unrequited love, and the female artist. The course will cover various genres such as the novel, drama, and of course poetry. Students will leave this course with an appreciation for the ways in which literary movements transcend national and generic borders.

Requirements:

Participation (attendance, thoughtful contribution to discussions)--10%
Short Essay on Romantic Poetry--25%
Position Paper Portfolio--25%
Final Project--40%

Policies:

Attendance policy: Students must attend a majority of class sessions in order to pass the class; long-term and repeated absences are unacceptable. Your first 3 absences are automatically excused and need no explanation please. Attendance is a part of your Participation grade, which is also determined by your active and enthusiastic participation in class discussions and timely completion of Position Papers. Please make a friend in class to cover material missed while absent.

Papers should be no longer or shorter than the length assigned and submitted on time. Use twelve-point type, in Times New Roman or CG Times (or 10 pt. in Veranda, etc.). 2 points are deducted from formal writing projects for every class day they are late. Click here to get an explanation of my shorthand on Style issues.
Please cite according to the MLA method and document all web sources (online links).
Accommodations are always arranged for students with documented disabilities. Please call, email, or see the instructor personally, as well as Services for Students with Disabilities (Linda A. Smith in Morehead Hall 305, X5431).

Tentative schedule subject to change; please check your Montclair email and <http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/romanticgrad07.html> for updates

Date	Class Activities	Homework Due	Supplementary/Optional Reading
Unit I: Romantic Poetry
1. R 1/18	Sign-up for Position Papers; What is Romanticism? (handout); Romantic Movements in Britain, Germany, and France; Online Resources: Romantic Circles; Blake Archive; Romanticism on the Net; NASSR Listserv; Women Romantic-Era Writers	Read V. Hugo, "Preface to Cromwell" from Prefaces and Prologues and R. Wellek, "The Concept of Romanticism in Literary History" (1949) from Romanticism: Points of View (Bb & Res.)	D. Perkins, "The Construction of the Romantic Movement" in NCL 45.2 (1990) (Bb & JSTOR); J. McGann, "Rethinking Romanticism." ELH 59.3 (1992): 735-48 (Bb & JSTOR)
2. R 1/25	British Romantic Poets I; Keats' letter to B. Bailey (online); Preface to Kubla Khan (online); Class Wiki Site	Position Paper due; Read W. Wordsworth, Advertisement (1798) and Preface (1802) to Lyrical Ballads (online); Coleridge: "Kubla Khan" (58-9), "This Lime-Tree" (2-3), "To W. Wordsworth" (69-72); Wordsworth: "Simon Lee" (4-6), " . . . Tintern Abbey" (21-4), "Lucy Gray" (30-2) from Lyrical Ballads; Keats: "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode to a Nightingale" (34-36); S. Wolfson, biographical intro. to poets (Bb); A. C. Austin, "Toward Resolving Keats' Grecian Urn Ode" from Contexts for Criticism, ed. D. Keesey (1994) (Bb)	P. J. Manning, "Reading and Ravishing" from Approaches to Teaching Keats's Poetry (Bb); G. Friedman, "The Erotics of Interpretation in Keats's Ode" in SiR (Summer 1993) (Bb); B. Lawder, "Secret(ing) Conversations: Coleridge and Wordsworth," in NLH 32.1 (2001) (Bb & Proj. Muse); P. Youngquist, "Rehabilitating Coleridge: Poetry, Philosophy, Excess,"in ELH 66.4 (1999) (Bb & Proj. Muse)
3. R 2/1	British Romantic Poets II; Blake Archive; Romantic Irony in Byron and Blake; the Elegy and other Poetic Genres	Position Paper due; P. B. Shelley: "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (2-5), "England in 1819" (34), "Adonais" (96-111); Byron: Misc. (4-19, 71), Blake: "The Chimney Sweeper" (online); "Little Black Boy" (online); J. F. Fetzer, "Romantic Irony" from European Romanticism, ed. G. Hoffmeister (Bb or Res.); S. Hall, ed., excerpts from Approaches to Teaching Shelley's Poetry (1990) (Bb)	A. Richardson, "Colonialism, Race, and Lyric Irony in Blake's 'The Little Black Boy'." PLP 26 (1990) (Bb); J. Soderholm, "Byron and Romanticism," in NLH 32.1 (2001) (Bb & Proj. Muse); F. Pyle, "'Frail Spells': Shelley and the Ironies of Exile" in Romantic Circles (online); G. Haggerty, "Love and Loss: an Elegy." GLQ 10.3 (2004) (Bb & Proj. Muse)
4. R 2/8	German Romantic Poetry & Movements (see Chronology); Alt. trans. of "Heidenröslein" and "Erlkönig"; hyperlinked Schiller, "Die Grösse der Welt"; alt. trans. Hölderlin; alt. trans. of Droste-Hülshoff, "Im Moose"; alt. trans. H. Heine, "Morphine"; Autopoiesis	Position Paper due; Goethe: "Heidenröslein" (4), "Erlkönig" (17-9); Schiller: "Die Grösse der Welt" (27); Hölderlin: "Hyperions Schicksalslied," "Da ich ein Knabe war," "Hälfte des Lebens" (55-9); Novalis: "Muss immer der Morgen wiederkommen?" (61-3); Droste-Hülshoff: "Im Moose" (131-33); Heine: "Ich weiss nicht . . . " (141-43), "Morphine" (146); D. Hill, "Introduction" to Lit. of the Sturm und Drang (2003) (Bb)	Helfer, Martha, "The Male Muses of Romanticism" (Summer 2005) from German Quarterly 78.3 (EBSCO & Bb); R. Jakobson et al.. "The Language of Schizophrenia," in Poetics Today 2.1a (1980) (Bb & JSTOR); M. Rosa, "Romanticism in A. v. Droste-Hülshoff" MLJ 32.4 (1948) (Bb & JSTOR); N. Saul, "Goethe the Writer" from Cambridge Companion to Goethe (Bb); T. P. Saine, "The World Goethe Lived In," from Cambridge Companion to Goethe (Bb); Tantillo, A. O. "Goethe's Botany and His Philosophy of Gender." Eighteenth-Century Life 22.2 (1998) 123-138 (Pr. Muse)
5. R 2/15	Discussion: Approaches to Teaching Poetry	Short Essay on Romantic Poetry due
Unit II: Frankenstein and the European Romantic Movement
6. R 2/22	Sufferings of Young Werther	Position Paper due; Read Goethe's Werther; S. P. Sondrup, "Wertherism" from European Romanticism (Bb & Res.)	B. Bennett, "Goethe's Werther: Double Perspective and the Game of Life," in GLQ 53.1 (Jan. 1980) (Bb & JSTOR); M. Higonnet, "Suicide: Representations of the Feminine in the Nineteenth Century," in Poetics Today 6.1/2 (1985) (JSTOR)
7. R 3/1	Rousseau	Position Paper due; Read Rousseau, Social Contract (49-68 [Bk I], 112-149 [Bk III, ch. 4-18], 176-end [Bk IV, ch. 8]; Rousseau, "Letter to M. D'Alembert" from Politics and the Arts (Bb & Res.); Rights of Man (online); Olympe de Gouges, Rights of Woman (online); W. C. Nielsen, "Staging Rousseau's Republic" in The Eighteenth Century: Theory 43.3 (Fall 2002) (Bb & Expanded Acad. ASAP)	D. Marshall, "Rousseau and the State of the Theater," ch. 5 from Surprising Effects of Sympathy (Bb)
8. R 3/8	Goethe, Faust (Part I)	Position Paper due; Read Goethe's Faust (Part I only, pp. 63-421); J. K. Brown, "Faust" from Cambridge Companion to Goethe (Bb); and C. Hamlin, "Faust in Performance," in Theater 32.1 (2002) (Bb & Proj. Muse)	G. v. Molnár, "Hidden in Plain View," in ECS 35.3 (2002) (Bb & Proj. Muse); A. Hoezel, "The Conclusion of Goethe's Faust," in The German Quarterly 55.1 (Jan. 1982) (Bb & JSTOR)
9. R 3/22	Hoffmann's The Sandman & the Uncanny	Position Paper due; Read E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman (Bb & Res.); S. Freud, "The Uncanny" (Bb & Res.); and A. Bresnick, "Prosopoetic Compulsion" in Germanic Review 71.2 (Spr. 1996) (EBSCO)	M. Tartar, "E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'Der Sandman:' Reflection and Romantic Irony," in MLN 95.3 (Apr. 1980) (Bb & JSTOR); J. M. Todd, "The Veiled Woman," in Signs 11.3 (1986) (Bb & JSTOR)
10. R 3/29	Mary's Shelley's Frankenstein & the Wollstonecraft-Godwin family	Position Paper due; Read 1-77 (through vol. 2, ch. 5); C. Small 205-208; G. Levine, 208-14; E. Moers, 214-24; A. Mellor 274-86 (all in Norton ed.); S. Wolfson, biographical introduction, W. Godwin and M. Wollstonecraft (Bb)	S. Lawson, MWS Chronology and Resource Site (online); P. Brooks, "Godlike Science/Unhallowed Arts" NLH 9.3 (Spring 1978) (Bb & JSTOR); N. Yousef, "The Monster in the Dark Room . . . " MLQ 63.2 (June 2002) (Bb & Proj. Muse)
11. R 4/5	Mary's Shelley's Frankenstein & Rousseau	Position Paper due; Finish the novel; S. Gilbert and S. Gubar, 225-40 (in Norton ed.); D. Marshall, "Frankenstein, or Rousseau's Monster" ch. 6 from Surprising Effects of Sympathy (Bb)	B. Johnson, 241-51 (in Norton ed.); M. Poovey 251-61 (in Norton ed.); J. O'Rourke, "'Nothing More Unnatural'" ELH 56.3 (Autumn 1989) (Bb & JSTOR)
12. R 4/12	French Revolution and the Women's Movement	No Pos. Paper due, but email me an abstract of Final Project; Read E. Inchbald, The Massacre (1792, online); W. C. Nielsen, "A Tragic Farce," in ERR 17.3 (July 2006) (Bb & EBSCO); D. O'Quinn, "Elizabeth Inchbald's The Massacre" (1999, online)	M. Robinson, A Letter to the Women of England (1799, online); M. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791, online); selection from E. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution (1790)
13. R 4/19	Romantics on film	Rough drafts of Final Project due (at least 5 pages)
14. R 4/26	Rough Drafts of Final Project Returned; Frankenstein on the Romantic Stage; "Romantic Movement;" party?	Position Paper Portfolios due; Read Peake, Richard B. Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein (Bb or online); Revisiting the "Romantic Movement" (bring all reading from Day 1 to class)	Resources for Presumption on Romantic Circles, ed. S. Behrendt (online)
R 5/3	Final Project due 5:30-7:30 pm

Last updated Apr. 2007