ROMANTICISM:
THE WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION

WL389, EH 300, RL380, GN403/572

Fall Semester 1997
T 3:00-5:30
Comer 262
Dept. Tel. 348-5054

Prof. Elaine Martin
Office: Comer 213
Tel.: 348-8520, 349-3919 h.
emartin@bama.ua.edu

 Description:

This interdisciplinary seminar will focus on the revolutionary aspects of Romantic literature, art and music (socially and politically challenging, artistically innovative, iconoclastic). While French and German works will be emphasized, we will also consider examples of Spanish and Japanese Romanticism and refer occasionally to parallels in English Romanticism.

Topics include: the importance of music, irony and parody, social criticism, love (heroes and femmes fatales), the supernatural, the grotesque, and alienation. We will also consider the influence on writers, artists, and composers of political upheavals such as the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789-91) as well as later pan-European movements such as the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.

 Requirements:

Active participation in discussions, midterm exam, final paper.

 Grading:

The final grade will be determined by:

1/3 participation
1/3 midterm
1/3 paper and other short writing assignments

 Texts:

Johann v. Goethe

The Sufferings of Young Werther

Soseki, Natsume

Kokoro

Ludwig Tieck

Puss in Boots (xerox)

Heinrich v. Kleist

The Marquise of O-- and Other Stories

E.T.A. Hoffmann

The Best Tales of Hoffmann

Izumi, Kyoka

Japanese Gothic Tales

Alfred de Musset

selections from The Confession of a Child of the Century (xerox)

Prosper Mérimée

Carmen and Other Stories

Leon Plantinga

Romantic Music (optional; you may use the copy on reserve instead of purchasing this text)

 Films:

Goethe Documentary

1981-82

Impromptu (re: George Sand & Chopin)

1990, Dir. James Lapine

Carmen (flamenco interpretation of Merimée’s novel)

1983, Dir. Carlos Saura

 

SYLLABUS

26 Aug

Introduction: R/romanticism(s)

1 Sept

FILM SHOWING: "Goethe" Documentary, Parts I, II, III (28 min. each)
Monday 7 p.m. 245 Comer

2 Sept

Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774)
Thackery’s "Werther" poem
Discussion of documentary film

9 Sept

Soseki. Kokoro

16 Sept

Tieck. Puss in Boots (1797) (xerox)

23 Sept

Kleist. "The Marquise of O" (1808); "Holy Cecilia" (1810/11)
DLB entry on Kleist (xerox)

30 Sept

ETA Hoffmann. "The Sandmann" (1815/16) "Rath Krespel" (1816)

7 Oct

Izumi. Japanese Gothic Tales

14 Oct

MIDTERM EXAM

21 Oct

Music and Romanticism: A European Overview: Beethoven
Plantinga. Chapters 1,2,3 (pp. 1-106)
In class: listening to Beethoven

28 Oct

Music and Romanticism: Schubert and "Lieder"; Chopin and Liszt
Plantinga. Chapters 4, 5, 7 (pp. 79-126 and 166-219)
In class: listening to Lieder using poems by Goethe, Heine, Müller)

4 Nov

Musset, The Confession of a Child of the Century (1836)(selections; xerox);
poems ("Nuit" poems 1835-37, "Souvenir" 1841)(xerox)

10 Nov

FILM SHOWING: "Impromptu" 1990, 108 min.
Monday 7 p.m., 245 Comer

11 Nov

Discussion of film "Impromptu"
Art and Romanticism: A European Overview. Slide lecture/discussion, Dr. Mindy Taggard, Art History

18 Nov

Art and Romanticism: Goya and Delacroix. Slide lecture/discussion, Dr. Mindy Taggard, Art History
PAPERS DUE (to my mailbox, 264 Comer, 12 noon; remember to include a one-page summary with your paper)

25 Nov

Mérimée, Carmen (1845)
Poems: Keats, "La belle dame sans merci," Brentano, "Lorelay"

1 Dec

FILM SHOWING: "Carmen," 1983, 7 p.m. 245 Comer
Monday

2 Dec

Discussion of film "Carmen"
Conclusion: Looking ahead to realism; transitional figures
Discussion of papers

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