ENGL 225 - Romanticism and Modernism

Institution:

Williams College

Subject:

English

Description:

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, literature written in English participated in two international aesthetic movements, Romanticism and Modernism, respectively. While Modernism is often thought to mark a decisive break with Romanticism--in part because both movements presented themselves as "new," a radical departure from what had gone before--there are important continuities and affinities as well as breaches between the two movements. This course will investigate the nature of Romanticism and Modernism, and the relation between them. We will study major works from each period, including polemics, poetry, novels, and short stories. Our Romantic writers will be primarily British, and will include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Percy and Mary Shelley; Modernist writers will include a more international cast of characters: Wilde, the French Symbolist poets, along with Pound, Stein, Williams, and several Harlem Renaissance writers. We will explore each movement's engagement with a range of topics and issues: for example, the subjective experience of time and memory; the nature of symbolization and the role of "feeling" in art; the relation of the individual mind to social life; the conflicted appeal for the artist of "common" language and experience, on the one hand, and avant-garde forms of expression, on the other. Our broader aim will be to invite potential English majors to think critically about the principles that underlie the ordering of literary history into aesthetic movements and "periods."

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

A 100-level English course, or a score of 5 on the Advanced Placement examination in English Literature or a 6 or 7 on the International Baccalaureate

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Seminar

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.williams.edu

Phone Number:

(413) 597-3131

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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