HRS 135 -- The Romantic
Spirit
California State University,
Sacramento
Department of History
College of Arts and Letters
Spring 2003
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E.T.A. Hoffmann
The course has no formal prerequisites, although a background in modern
western culture (HRS 11) is helpful.
HRS 135 is intended primarily for Humanities and Religious Studies majors
and for general CSUS students fulfilling their Advanced Study requirement
in General Education. Majors in History, English, Philosophy, Art,
etc. find it interesting and informative.
This course will study some
of the great works of art, music and literature of Western world in the
19th century. It will focus
primarily on the Romantic Era proper from about 1770 to 1850, but will
also consider works of Late Romanticism from about 1880 to 1914.
The course is highly interdisciplinary, focusing primarily on imaginative
literature -- novels, short novels, short stories and poetry. Its second
focus will be on music, with most emphasis on orchestral music but with
attention devoted also piano music. Painting will also be considered,
usually to reinforce points made in other areas. The geographical focus
will be on France, Germany and England.
All of this is in some sense bound together by ideas, values and leitmotifs characteristic of western civilization in this period.
It is also interesting to identify the differences among the "Romanticisms"
of different national traditions.
This course has several objectives:
--
acquaint students with some of the great works of European (western) civilization
in literature and the arts, especially in the Romantic Era.
-- help students develop their own personal aesthetic sense (appreciation
of beauty) by considering these works.
-- give students some deeper insight into the character of their civilization
(e.g., the image of women, the cult of nature, romantic love as consistent
trends in the West) as exhibited specifically in the 19th century.
-- help students improve their critical and writing skills by discussion
of topics in class and by writing critical thought papers.
This aim is particularly important since HRS 155 is an Advanced
Study course.
The course stresses an orderly procession through the material, structured discussion of texts in class, critical thinking and clear analytical writing.
Alexander Pushkin
John Keats
David: Napoleon in His Study
Friedrich: The Wanderer
Gericault: The Cuirassier
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Theodor Fontane
Resources
The Enlightenment
Romanticism in Art
Romanticism in Literature
Classical
Neo-Classicism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Johann W. von Goethe
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Alexander Pushkin
Edgar Allan Poe
Bronte Sisters
Grimm Brothers
Hans Christian Andersen
Jacques-Louis David
Theodore Gericault
Eugene Delacroix
Francisco Goya
Caspar David Friedrich
William Turner
William Blake
Heinrich Heine
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats
Samuel T. Coleridge
William Wordsworth
History Western Music
Devt of Classical Symphony
History of the Piano
Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Franz Josef Haydn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Felix Mendelssohn
Gioacchino Rossini
Franz Schubert
Robert Schumann
Camille Saint-Saens
Bedrich Smetana
Johann Strauss II
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff's Legacy
Voltaire
Joseph Addison
Immanuel Kant
Isaac Newton
Benjamin Franklin
John Wesley
Diagnostic Essay
Sample Diagnostic Essay
Sample Essay on Art
First Essay Topics
Second Essay Topics
Third Essay Topics
Exam #1: Study Questions
Exam #2: Study Questions
French Romantic Painting:
Slides
Painting Outside
France
Poetry Selections
Study Guide: Werther
Study Guide: Hoffmann
Study Guide: Eugene Onegin
Study Guide: Effi Briest
Fairy Tales: Grimm
Fairy Tales: Andersen
Samuel T. Coleridge
Mary Shelley
Instructor: George S. Craft
More information is available on Dr. Craft's homepage. You may contact the instructor via e-mail at gcraft@csus.edu.