The Formation of the Modern Self: German Romanticism
GRST 289
Spring 2026
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 304 |
The 18th century in Europe saw tremendous changes in the ways people thought about and saw the world. In the process, old certainties, assumptions, and authorities collapsed, requiring new conceptions of self and world. In the decades around 1800, it became increasingly clear that the Enlightenment's Enlightenment's optimistic view of progress was hiding some deeper concerns about unsettling and urgent problems, such as the reintegration of the newly "liberated" individual into society, the disconnect between scientific hypothesis and a more holistic view of the world, the role of language as the main mediator of human experience, or the sorting and ordering of the sheer mass of knowledge and information that the Enlightenment produced. It was German authors and thinkers, in particular, who started asking and answering such questions, creating some of the lasting conceptualizations of the modern self in literature (Goethe), aesthetics (Kant), and anthropology (Herder), but also exploring roads not pursued any further, such as Goethe's Goethe's theory of color. Later authors explored even more troubling questions about communal cohesion (Hölderlin), the dangers of misinformation and misconceptions (Kleist), and the disruption wrought by new technology (E.T.A. Hoffmann), topics of as much urgency then as they are today. By reading authors from this German "Romanticism," we will historicize, evaluate, and critique notions of the modern individual, just as this very self is starting to dissolve under the pressure of new technology and accelerating social and political processes. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (German Studies Minor)(German Studies)(Social, Cultural and Critical Theory Certificate) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
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