German Romanticism, 1790-1830

3 units

The concept of love is understood differently by each generation, but the revolution and reinvention of this concept occur less frequently. The romantic epoch is such a revolutionary and reinventing period. We will read narrative texts and poems by Novalis, Tieck, Schlegel, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Kleist, Chamisso, Fouque, Brentano, and Arnim and compare them with drawings and paintings by romantic artists such as Runge, Fohr, Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Richter, Friedrich, Overbeck, Schwind, Fuessli, and Cornelius. Selected scholarly articles on the topic will be made available. The texts and paintings thematize the utopian elements of romantic love, as well as the different meanings and contradictions of love in romanticism in regard to gender and social class and to its colonial and national aspects. For graduate students only.