English 484 Fall 1999

Issues in Criticism: Romantic Nature

T, TH 1-2:30 G239 Angell Hall

Professor Tobin Siebers
3267 Angell Hall
Hours: T, TH 2:30-3:30 and by appointment
Tel: 764-5481
tobin@umich.edu

Course Description

A Survey of Romantic ideas about nature and their legacy in twentieth-century literary theory, art, and ecological practices.

 

Requirements and General Information

 
Requirements: 
  • Class participation
  • Attendance
  • 10 pp. paper. Due 10.9
  • Final project. Due 12.9
 Books and coursepack available at: 
  • Shaman Drum Bookshop, 315 S. State St.
  • Kolossos Copying, 1214 S. University St.
 

General resources

The major online resource is the Romantic Chronology Homepage. It is essential reading.
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/chrono.htm
 
 

 

September 9.99

9.9 Introduction

Problem: The issue of the relevance of nature to the Romantic period has been an embattled question in the last forty years. What is at stake in the acceptance and denial of the Romantic preoccupation with nature?
Resources:
Wellek, René. "Romanticism Re-Examined." ROMANTICISM RECONSIDERED. Ed. Northrop Frye. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. Pp. 105-33 (CP).
 

9.14 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Problem: The REVERIES is a text about injury and nature. Why and in what way are these two ideas brought together by Rousseau?
Resources:
Gans, Eric. "The Victim as Subject: The Esthetico-Ethical System of Rousseau's REVERIES." STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM 21 (1982): 3-31.

Siebers, Tobin. "Rousseau and Autonomy." STANFORD FRENCH REVIEW 17.1 (1993): 7-24.
 

9.16 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Cont.)

Problems: The "Fifth Walk" is considered one of the origins of Romantic nature poetry. How is nature described there? Is it merely a setting or does it have a life of its own?
 

9.21 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Cont.)

Problems: Why must Rousseau experience nature in solitude? How does this fact relate to his fame?

 

9.23 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Problems: WERTHER is the premier text of suicide in the West. It makes of suicide an art. What does nature contribute to this art? How does Goethe's vision differ from Rousseau's?
Resources:
Goethe, J. W. von. "Reflections on Werther." THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER AND SELECTED WRITINGS. Pp. 131-53.

Siebers, Tobin. "The Werther Effect: The Esthetics of Suicide." MOSAIC 26.1 (1993): 15-34.

 

9.28 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Cont.)

Problems: Werther and Lotte read aloud to each other? Compare the landscapes in their readings with the setting of the novel. What is the significance of Werther's final resting place? What is the role of the editor?
 

9.30 William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834)

Problem: What is the ethical and political significance of nature in Wordsworth's "Preface"? Key terms are the ideas of "everyday," "diction," "the nature of the poet."
Resources:
THE LYRICAL BALLADS on line:
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/links-w.htm
 

October 10.99

10.5 William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge (Cont.)

Problems: How does Wordsworth describe nature? Do Wordsworth and Coleridge share the same idea of it?
Resources:
Lake District resources online:
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/links-w.htm

Knight, G. Wilson. "The Wordsworthian Profundity." THE STARLIT DOME: STUDIES IN THE POETRY OF VISION. 1941; reprint, London: Methuen, 1959, pp. 1-82.

Piper, H. W. THE ACTIVE UNIVERSE: PANTHEISM AND THE CONCEPT OF IMAGINATION IN THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETS. London: Athlone Press, 1962.

 

10.7 William Wordsworth (Cont.)

Problem: Human beings dwell on the land and change it. How do their craft and art relate to the work of nature?
Resources:
Hartman, Geoffrey. Selections from WORDSWORTH'S POETRY 1787-1814. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964. Pp. 73-75 (CP).

 

10.12 John Keats (1795-1821) and Percy Shelley (1792-1822)

Problem: Keats defines "negative capability" as the capacity to remain in uncertainties. How does the image of nature contibute to this capacity? How are self and nature played off against each other in Keats and Shelley?
Resources:
Selected works by Keats on line:
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/links-k.htm

British Library Exhibition on Keats, including a recording of a nightingale
http://www.bl.uk/exhibitions/keats/

10.14 Keats and Shelley (Cont.)

Problem: What is the nature of Romantic weather?
Resources:
Selected works by Shelley on line:
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/rom-chrono/links-s.htm

 

10.19 PAPER DUE (10 PP.)

10.19 National Socialism: Blood and Soil

Problems: National Socialism wanted to constitute itself as an "organic" community. How did the movement conceive of nature and how is this vision manifested in its approved art? We will focus on the Great German Art Exhibition of 1937 and the Nazi idea of ecology.
Resources:
Adam, Peter. ART OF THE THIRD REICH. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Bramwell, Anna. "The Steiner Connection." ECOLOGY IN THE 20TH CENTURY: A HISTORY. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Pp. 195-208

Ferry, Luc. "Nazi Ecology." THE ECOLOGICAL ORDER. Trans. Carol Volk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Pp. 91-107.

 

10.21 National Socialism: Blood and Soil (Cont.)

Problems: The exhibition of "Degenerate Art" (1937) affords the opportunity to examine the vision of nature rejected by the Nazis. On what basis was this art rejected? How does the so-called "degenerate art" relate to the history of Romantic views of nature?
 

10.26 M. H. Abrams

Problems: The emergence of modern literary theory relied on Romantic writings and theories, especially those concerned with nature and the human imagination. How does nature fit into Abrams's sketch of the psychology of literary invention? What is the status of the "organic" opposed to the "mechanical"?
 

10.28 W. K. Wimsatt

Problems: What do natural landscapes and objects bring to the sensual experience of poetry?

 
 

November 11.99

11.2 Paul de Man

Problems: De Man attacks the viewpoints of Abrams and Wimsatt, arguing that language is more important to the Romantics than nature. How does de Man interpret nature? What does he gain by focusing on language?

 

11.4 Guest Artist: Michael Kapetan

 Michael Kapetan, "Carving for the Saints" (CP)
 

11.9 Paul de Man (Cont.)

 

11.11 Geoffrey Hartman

Problem: In which ways do lyric poetry and poetry of place connect in Wordsworth?

 

11.16 Raymond Williams

Problem: What forces does the emergence of Romantic pastoral poetry seek to oppose?
 

11.18 Marjorie Levinson

Problem: How does the Romantic ideal of nature obscure other materialisms in the poetry?
 
Resources:
Selections from Levinson's essay and various critiques of it (archived by David S. Miall, U. Alberta)
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/tintern.htm

 

11.23 Karl Kroeber

Problem: Why has ecology been excluded from the definition of politics by literary theorists?
 
Resources:
Bate, Jonathan. ROMANTIC ECOLOGY. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.

 

11.30 Robert Smithson (1938-1973)

  •         ROBERT SMITHSON: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS. Ed. Jack Flam (1996)
  •                 "A Seditmation of the Mind: Earth Projects," pp. 100-13
  •                 "The Spiral Jetty," pp. 143-54
    • Problems: How does Smithson think about "earth"? What is the effect of his works on the environment?

    Resources

    Aerial photograph of THE SPIRAL JETTY
    http://www.mines.utah.edu/~wmgg/Geology/UtahGIFS/SpiralJetty.html
     
     

    December 12.9

     

    12.2 Robert Smithson (Cont.)

    Problems: Is it possible for art to recover ecologically vandalized sites such as dump sites or strip mines? What is the artistic potential of industrial damage to the environment? Visit a gallery of art and accidental art images and consider the questions posed there.

     

    12.7 Jackie Winsor (1941-)

    Problems: Consider the relevance of everyday activity to Winsor's sculptures? How does the presence of women's crafts influence her art? What is its ecological effect?

     
     

    12.9 Final Project Due

    Guest Artist: Ted Ramsay