Fall 2009

Romanticism and the Enlightenment

Listed in: First Year Seminar, as FYSE-07

Faculty

Ute Brandes (Section 01)
George S. Greenstein (Section 02)
Allen Guttmann (Section 03)

Description

The late eighteenth century is often characterized as the Age of Enlightenment, a time when educated men and women were confident that human reason was sufficient to understand the laws of nature, to improve society’s institutions, and to produce works of the imagination surpassing those of previous generations (and rivalling those of classical antiquity).  The early nineteenth century brought a distrust of rationality (the Head) and an affirmation of the importance of human emotion (the Heart).  “Romanticism and the Enlightenment” will test these broad generalizations by reading, looking at, and listening to some representative verbal, visual, and musical texts.  Among the texts are paired and opposed works by Samuel Johnson, John Keats, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Jacques Louis David, and Eugène Delacroix.  In dealing with these and other diverse texts, no special skills are required and all are welcome.

Although there will be several lectures for which all sections will meet together, the course is basically a series of discussions in which everyone is expected to participate (although it is understood that some students will probably speak more often than others).  The assumption of the course is that the ability to express yourself by speaking is almost as important as  the ability to express yourself by writing.  It is also assumed that for all of us, including the faculty, there is room for improvement.  There will be three or four short papers (approximately four pages each) and a longer paper that will serve as a take-home final exam.  The discussions and the papers will ask students to engage intellectually and emotionally with the assigned texts.

Fall semester.  Professors Brandes, Greenstein, and Guttmann.

FYSE 07 - L/D

Section 01
M 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 101
W 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 101
F 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 101

Section 02
M 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 205
W 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 205
F 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 205

Section 03
M 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 103
W 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 103
F 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM CHAP 103

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2009, Fall 2010