Political Romanticism

What, if anything, is political about Romanticism? We will read the literary and non-literary writings of British and German romantic authors, with a focus on their complex relationship to political ideas, political practice, and the very concept of "the political." We will also consider why the question of Romanticism's relationship to politics has been re-visited with such insistency in the 20th century. Authors include W. Wordsworth, P. B. Shelley, Coleridge, Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, and Kleist. All readings and discussions in English.