Romantic art and thought often exemplify a complex engagement with subjectivity and nature, a deep concern with politics and society, and an effort to transcend traditions of enslavement. The Romantic age was defined by consciousness of consciousness.
In this course, we will explore Rousseau’s influential critique of the alleged moral, political, and spiritual effects of Enlightenment thought and Kant’s double-edged response to the challenge of empiricism. The British poets of this period, who all reacted to Kant and Rousseau, include the mournfully self-conscious Wordsworth, the neurotic and brooding Coleridge, and the explosively talented and creative Shelley and Keats. Blake, Byron, and a few important German and British prose writers (Goethe, Hoffmann, Godwin, De Quincey, etc.) will also be included. Brief attention will be paid to the contemporaneous and related paintings of Gericault, Delacroix, Friedrich, Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. We will also consider the music of Beethoven and Chopin, as well as Berlioz’s fascination with the role literature in music. Authors and genres may vary somewhat, depending on the semester.