Undergraduate Course: The Cult of Feeling: Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and Early Romanticism (ELCG10013)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This seminar will focus on the development of the literary culture of feeling in Germany from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, and the connections between the following literary movements: Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and early Romanticism. Empfindsamkeit or Sentimentalism, with its liberation of the senses and emotions, and its emphasis on the private expression of feeling and reflective inwardness, can be viewed culturally as a counter-discourse to the Enlightenment (rationalism). It was followed by the Sturm und Drang movement in the 1770s and 80s that ran parallel with the final stages of Sentimentalism, but gave voice to an externalized expression of the struggle of the self to achieve autonomy, which challenged social and political boundaries and introduced literary reforms. The 1790s saw the birth of German Romanticism, a movement that developed the philosophical understanding of the relationship between the self and the world, which foregrounded the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the human experience.
This course examines the ways in which the concept of the hero changes from the 1770s to around 1800, and will cover topics such as the senses and the body, power and punishment, language and gesture, fathers and sons, and the Romantic new mythology project. The key texts will be: Goethe¿s Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774), Lenz¿s Der Hofmeister (1774) and Anmerkungen übers Theater (1774), Schiller¿s Die Räuber (1781) and Novalis¿ Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802).
The course-specific learning goals are (1) to introduce you to the debates relating to the role of the emotions in the second half of the eighteenth century; (2) to explore the role of the autonomous individual in the selected plays and novels of this period; (3) to develop your skills in appreciating and discussing literary texts.
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
German 2 (ELCG08006)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Honours entry. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
An understanding of the development of writing in 18th and early 19th century Germany and of the key movements of Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and Romanticism.
Knowledge and understanding of a selection of texts by major writers of the period.
An understanding of the literary text as a source for the study of cultural and intellectual history.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Sentimentalism, Storm and Stress, Early Romanticism, Enlightenment |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Eleoma Bodammer
Tel: (0131 6)50 3639
Email: Eleoma.Bodammer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Fiona Scanlon
Tel: (0131 6)50 3647
Email: Fiona.Scanlon@ed.ac.uk |
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