ENG243

Some scholars of Romanticism contend that it cannot be defined. Others have insisted on maintaining national divides between the movement to preserve purist genealogies.Still others have argued that it can be viewed as a reaction against the way of life in capitalist societies. This course reexamines the origins and breadth of Romanticism, beginning first with the traditionally studied German Novelle and British poetry and then shifting to other national and transnational works that have not previously been associated with Romanticism as a movement, such as romantic racialized paintings of Native Americans, Frederick Douglass’ “The Heroic Slave,” and the Haitian rebellion. The course breaks down Romanticism past definitional monolith and asks how capitalism, nationalism, revolution, and transatlanticism revise past scholarly approaches to the movement and further contextualize it within the global world. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course.