Comparative
Literature 186RR—Romantic Revolutions: Philosophy, History, and the Arts in
Europe
Instructor: James H. Donelan
Room: Girvetz
2116
Meeting Times: MTWR 11:00-12:20
Email: donelan@writing.ucsb.edu
Office: 1319 Girvetz Hall
Office Hours: MT 12:30-1:30
Enroll Code: 15628
Fulfills the E2 General Education Requirement and the Writing Requirement
Texts:
Wordsworth, The
Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850
Robinson, Ludwig
van Beethoven: Fidelio
Breckman, European
Romanticism
Vaughan, Romanticism and Art
Blake, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
Course Reader: Available soon at Graphikart in Isla Vista.
Course Description: An interdisciplinary investigation
of the revolutionary changes in European history and culture during the
Romantic era. Students will read works by Wordsworth, Blake, and Hegel, view
paintings by David, Goya, Friedrich, and Constable, and hear music by Beethoven
and Schubert in the context of political revolt and reform.
Course Requirements: Students should attend all
classes after having completed the reading, listening, and viewing assignments.
The course also requires two five-page essays, a midterm, and a final, along
with a prospectus and an outline for each essay. Grades will be determined as
follows: first essay, 20%; midterm, 20%; second essay, 25%, final, 30%,
participation, 5%. The essays will be critical interpretations of a work or
works examined in the course, with scholarly secondary sources and proper MLA
citation style.
Syllabus
I. Revolutionary Beginnings: The Late Enlightenment and the French
Revolution
6/20 Introduction and
Logistics: Mozart and the Enlightenment
6/21 Blake, Songs of Innocence
6/22 Blake, Songs of
Experience
6/23 Doyle, The French Revolution
6/27 Burke, Reflections (reader).
6/28 “Introduction: A Revolution in Culture” and F. Schlegel, “Athenaeum
Fragment No. 116” in European
Romanticism, 76
II. Romantic Reforms: The British Slave Trade and Women’s Rights
6/29 Jacobus,
"Geometric Writing" and Equiano,
"Narrative" (reader)
6/30 Wilberforce, "Speech" and Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman (reader) First
Essay Due.
7/4 Happy Independence Day!
7/5 Shelley, excerpt from
Frankenstein in European Romanticism,
139; Beethoven, Fidelio
7/6 Beethoven, Fidelio, continued.
7/7 Midterm
III. Romantic Self-consciousness: Poetry, Music, and Philosophy
7/11 Wordsworth, Prelude, Books I, V, VI, IX, and X
7/12 Prelude, Books XI-XIV
7/13 Wordsworth, “Preface” and “Tintern Abbey,” in European
Romanticism, 62
7/14 Beethoven, String Quartet in Bb
major, Op. 130/133; Hoffmann, “Beethoven’s Instrumental Music” in European Romanticism, 126
7/18 Fichte, “What is a people?” and “What is love?” in European Romanticism, 113
7/19 Hegel, from The Phenomenology of
Spirit (reader)
IV. The Romantic Sublime: Beauty, Truth, and Longing
7/20 Vaughan, Romanticism and Art, Chapters 5 and 6; links to paintings
online
7/21 Shelley, "Mont Blanc" and "A Defence
of Poetry" in European Romanticism, 142;
Keats,
Odes (reader) Second essay due.
Takacs Quartet Concert, SBMA, 2PM;
Hahn Hall, 8PM
7/25 Schubert, Winterreise, first half.
7/26 Schubert, Winterreise,
second half.
7/27 Conclusions and Presentations.
7/28 Final Exam