American Romanticism

Catalog description

This course explores transcendentalism and romanticism during the flowering of intellectual and social life in America from 1830 to 1865. Studying the transatlantic origins of these movements through an interdisciplinary lens, we examine how these writers responded to broad social, aesthetic, and philosophical influences in crafting their unique literary styles. We will also analyze paintings, photographs, film, and material culture to understand how romanticism and transcendentalism defined this age and continues to influence our own. Authors include Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, Alcott, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Douglass, Davis, Whitman, and Dickinson.