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 this movement in philosophy, religion, and literature, we examine how these writers responded to literary influences and crafted their unique style. The course also focuses on the relationship between literature and American culture, including a study of the visual arts and material culture. Authors include Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, Alcott, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Douglass, Davis, Whitman, and Dickinson.