Classicism and Romanticism

Undergraduate / Graduate

This undergraduate/graduate course will examine the dynamic relationship between the French "Classicism" of the Age of Louis XIV and the later post-Revolutionary movement of Romanticism. We will pair readings of poetic, dramatic, and narrative works from the 17th century (e.g., Molière, Mme de La Fayette, Corneille, Racine) with later counterparts (Germaine de Staël, Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Hugo, George Sand), probing changing conceptions of the role of literature and art, as well as shifting attitudes towards erotic love, social norms, and nature.