Description

Originating in the late-18th century and flowering in the 19th, Romanticism was a multi-faceted, complex literary movement that radically altered the way language expresses the human condition. Reacting against a dehumanizing industrialization, an excessive scientific rationalization of nature, and unimaginative philosophical, political, and religious orthodoxies, Romantic writing at its best was a clarion call for liberation of all sorts -physical, spiritual, mental, and formal. In this course, we will explore how poets from all over the world, particularly the Americas, Europe, and Asia, participated in the Romantic project. We will focus particularly on the Romantic exploration of new forms of language, consciousness, and social/biological relationships; experiments with dreamwork and other visionary practices; reassessments of ancient cultural terrains; foregrounding of the subjective, emotional, and transcendental; movement towards globalism; and reconstruction of the concept of the poem itself.

Required Text

All of the reading for the course will be found in the anthology, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry, Volume Three. It is edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey Robinson.

Grading Breakdown

• Participation 10%
• Weekly responses 20%
• Midterm 30%
• Final 40%

Course Schedule

Week 1: Prelude to the Romantic Period

• Tue
• Course introduction
• Thu
• Introduction (1–18)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, Reveries of the Solitary Walker (23–26)
• Emanuel Swedenborg, The Spiritual Diary (26–29)
• Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants (42–45)
• Marquis de Sade, Juliette (53–57)

Week 2: The Burgeoning of the Romantic Movement I

• Tue
• Johann von Goethe, Prometheus (63–65); Faust (82–84); Venetian Epigrams (84–87), “The Metamorphosis of Plants” (89–91); Commentary (93–95)
• William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (95–98); “The Mental Traveller” (100–103); Commentary (78, 108–9)
• Germaine de Stael, Corinne (138–45)
• William Wordsworth, Prelude, “Book Fifth” (172–76); Commentary (181–82)
• Thu
• Friedrich Hölderlin, “I Once Asked the Muse,” “In the Forest,” “Columbus” (145–60)
• Novalis, Faith and Love, Hymns to the Night (190–202)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (202–4); “Dejection” (205–8); “Fire, Famine, and Slaughter” (213–15)

Week 3: The Burgeoning of the Romantic Movement II

• Tue
• Charles Fourier, The Theory of the Four Movements, “The Phalanx at Dawn” (217–21)
• Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (232–36); Don Juan (237–40); Commentary (242–43)
• Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (250–51); Queen Mab (252–62); Peter Bell (262–65)
• John Keats, Endymion (303–5); “Ode to Psyche” (307–8); “Ode on Melancholy” (312–13); Commentary (313–14)
• Thu
• Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz (337–40); Forefathers’ Eve (340–43)
• Giacomo Leopardi, “L’lnfinito” (343); Operette Morali (345–48); “Broom” (348–57)
• Dionysios Solomos, “The Woman of Zante” (360–75)
• Aleksander Pushkin, “The Bronze Horseman” (376–79); Eugene Onegin (385–92)

Week 4: Nineteenth-Century Asian Poetics

• Tue
• Some Asian Poets: Prologue (279–81)
• Kobayashi Issa, “Fifteen Haiku,” The Spring of My Life (281–85)
• Ho Xuan Huong, “Autumn Landscape,” “On Sharing a Husband,” “Jackfruit,” “Weaving at Night” (285–86)
• Wu Tsao, “For the Courtesan,” “Bitter Rain in My Courtyard,” “I Have Closed the Double Doors” (286–88)
• Thu
• Bibi Hayati, “Before There Was a Hint of Civilization,” “How Can I See the Splendor of the Moon,” “Is It the Night of Power” (288–91)
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (291–92)

Week 5: The Romantic Quest for Origins I

• Tue
• Book of Origins: Prologue (395–96)
• William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (397)
• Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead (397–98)
• G.R.S. Mead, Pistis Sophia (398–402)
• Sir William Jones, “Two From Sanskrit” (402–3)
• Edward FitzGerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (403–5)
• Thu
• Daniel Brinton, Rig Veda Americanus (406–7)
• Washington Matthews, The Night Chant (408–10)
• Francis Child, “Sir Patrick Spence” (411–12)
• Percy Shelley, “Homer’s Hymn to the Moon” (412–13)
• Yuk Karadzic, “A Poem for the Goddess” (413–14)

Week 6: The Romantic Quest for Origins II

• Tue
• Lady Guest, “The Tale of Taliesin” (414–15)
• Esais Tegner, Frithiof’s Saga (416–17)
• Christmas Gysarts Play (417–21)
• Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Negro Spirituals (421–25)
• Thu
• James Macpherson, Ossian (46–52)
• Thomas Chatterton, The Rowley Poems (65–72)
• Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose,” “Love and Liberty” (121–33)
• Elias Lonnrot, Kalevala (451–59)

Week 7: Romanticism Comes of Age I

• Tue
• Victor Hugo, “Russia 1812” (439–41); God (444–51)
• Thomas Lovell Beddoes, “A Crocodile” (460–61); Death’s Jest Book (461–63); Commentary (465–66)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (470–76)
• Robert Browning, “Heap Cassia” (520); “Caliban Upon Setebos” (520–28); Commentary (530)
• Gerard de Nerval, “Les Chimeres” (484–93)
• Thu
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Days” (494); “Ode” (497-99); “Bacchus” (501–4)
• Edgar Allan Poe, “Sonnet-Silence” (504–5); Eureka (506–9)
• Alfred Tennyson, “The Hesperides” (510–13); Maud (513–20)
• Søren Kierkegaard, “The Illegible Letter,” Either/Or, “Nebuchadnezzar” (540–45)

Week 8: Midterm

• Tue
• Midterm review
• Thu
• Midterm

Week 9: Spring Break

Week 10: Romanticism Comes of Age II

• Tue
• Walt Whitman, “The Sleepers” (569–70); Song of Myself ( 570–7l ); “I Sing the Body Electric” (576–82); “Good-Bye My Fancy!” (582–84)
• Charles Baudelaire, “Correspondences” (596–97); “Two Prose Poems” (597–98); “Litanies of Satan” (600–601); “To the Reader” (606–8)
• Sandor Petofi, The Apostle (612–19)
• Sousandrade, “The Wall Street Inferno” (655–63)
• Thu
• Dante Rossetti, “The Blessed Damozel” (624–29); A Trip to Paris and Belgium (629–34)
• Emily Dickinson, Poems (634–44)
• Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market (649–55)
• Stephane Mallarme, “The Tomb of Edgar Poe” (687); “Igitur” (687–96); A Tomb for Anatol (697–704)

Week 11:The Making of a Postromantic Modernism I

• Tue
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Star Images” (737–38); “Two Sonnets” (738–39); “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo” (740–42)
• Friedrich Nietzsche, “Oedipus” (743); “The Desert Grows” (743–47); “Only a Fool!” (747–49); Commentary (751–52)
• Comte de Lautreamont, Poesies (760–62); Maldoror (762–68)
• Jose Marti, “Two Homelands Have I” (771); Simple Verses (774–76); Commentary (778–79)
• Thu
• Paul Verlaine, Songs Without Words (753–56); “Overture” (756–57); “Sonnet to the Asshole” (757–58); Commentary (759–60)
• Arthur Rimbaud, Poems (779–95)
• Arno Holz, Phantasus (824–25); Commentary (835)
• Jose Silva, “Nocturne III” (836–38)

Week 12: The Making of a Postromantic Modernism II

• Tue
• Sigbjorn Obstefelder, Poems (838–44)
• Ruben Dario, Poems (844–53)
• Alfred Jarry, Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician (854–61)
• Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans (861–68)
• Thu
• Antonio Machado, “Six Poems” (868–74)
• Rainer Maria Rilke, “Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes” (874–78)
• Yosano Akiko, Poems (878–86)
• Guillaume Apollinaire, “Zone” (886–91)

Week 13: Romanticism’s Experimental Impulses

• Tue
• Book of Extensions: Prologue (707–8)
• William Blake, America: A Prophecy (76–77), “Laocoon” (709)
• Edward Lear, “Eight Limericks” (531–34); “Letter to Mrs. Stuart Wortley” (536–38); “How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear” (538–40)
• Lewis Carroll, “Concrete Poem” (713); “Jabberwocky” (715); “Three Syllogisms” (720)
• Johann von Goethe, “Writing Aslant” (720)
• Thu
• Mary Shelley, “Improvisation” (722–23)
• Henry David Thoreau, “A Telegraph Harp” (723–24)
• Three Alphabets (727–31)
• Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno (34–41)

Week 14: Manifestos and Poetics I

• Tue
• Johann von Goethe, Toward a World Literature (895)
• William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (895–97)
• Friedrich Hölderlin, On the Difference of Poetic Modes (897–98)
• William Wordsworth, “Advertisement for Lyrical Ballads” (898–99)
• Samuel T. Coleridge, Shakespeare (899–900)
• Friedrich von Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragment 116, On Incomprehensibility (900–902)
• Thu
• No class; Easter holiday

Week 15: Manifestos and Poetics II

• Tue
• Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (902–3)
• John Keats, “To Richard Woodhouse” (904–5)
• Heinrich Heine, Journey from Munich to Genoa (905–6)
• Victor Hugo, “Preface to Cromwell” (906–7)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet (907–8)
• Thu
• Walt Whitman, “Preface to Leaves of Grass” (908)
• Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life (908–10)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (910–11)
• Emily Dickinson, “Letter to Thomas W. Higginson” (912)
• Walter Pater, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (913–14)

Week 16: Conclusion

• Tue
• Stephane Mallarme, Crisis in Verse (914–15)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poetry and Verse (915–16)
• Arthur Rimbaud, “Letter to Paul Demeny” (916–18)
• Rainer Maria Rilke, “An Archaic Torso of Apollo” (918)
• Thu
• Last Day of Class!
• Final Exam