Cory Owen

Horizons Expanded: What I Learned

    This course was surprising in many ways for me.  I'm absolutely terrible at time lines and keeping historical facts in order, so while I had the general understanding of what the Romantic period consisted of, I had no idea to what extend it encompassed so many types of genre.  That being said, the first thing I noticed was Ginsberg on the list of authors.  After taking a whole semester of his works, I was not excited about the prospect of reading him again and didn't really see the connection between his works and being canonized into Romanticism.  Seeing the slave narratives also surprised me, as I've always read these works in an African-American lit course, minority lit course, or in a history class.  The scope of this course really broadened my understanding of what Romanticism included. 

    The writings of Poe, Hawthorne, and Fitzgerald are what I originally associated with this period of writing.  These writers seemed to exemplify the overarching style of heightened emotions with so much of their narratives focused on wanting.  The theme of wanting anything but the "here and now" is recurring throughout the works by these authors which fit with my initial understanding of the period.  The Gothic obsession of Poe always seems to revolve around a lost love or lost innocence.  Hawthorne uses his Puritan interest to focus on the socially marginalized and uses religion as a tool to explore moral issues.  Fitzgerald’s wistful longing for what could have been is a constant theme in his writing with a strong emphasis on class distinctions.  Though all three of these writers seem not to have a lot in common, they all fit into Romanticism for me because of their consistent concern for something but the "here and now". 

    The Byronic Hero has always been the other area of interest for me within the genre.  Perhaps because of the same reasons that draw me to the darker writing, these flawed characters are so tragic that they stay in your mind long after the story is over.  And this may be an extension of why Romantic literature makes such an impact on readers.  The heightened emotional style seems to make lasting impressions.  Though I'm not a teacher anymore, I do have two younger sisters (who do not have my love of reading) and even they enjoy reading Poe and Hawthorne, which leads to great discussions.  And as teens, with their own personal angst about everything in their world, maybe they relate to this more dramatic writing style.  For me, that haunting nature of reading a Gothic story led me to replay the scenes over and over in my mind to enjoy the thrills of such psychological storytelling. 

    The biggest surprise for me in this course was the inclusion of the slave narratives.  I explained a bit of my surprise in my class presentation, but I think my main justification was that it seemed to be such an important genre that they should have had their own classification.  (Of course, I feel the same way about The Gothic.)  As we went through the abolition and slave pieces, I could see how the narratives fit into the umbrella of Romanticism.  Especially when looking at the time line of the American Renaissance, it is fitting to see how these works fit into Romanticism.  That renewed fervor and hope for the future during a time of turmoil allowed for the narratives to continue with the theme of anything but the "here and now".   I really enjoyed how we could also see their narratives all as a part of a quest.  While it is obviously romantic to be working so hard towards love, the efforts to move towards freedom seem to trump some of the other storylines from this semester.

    I have a very low tolerance for the Beats, mostly based on a whole semester of studying Ginsberg.  While I know that I'm completely biased in this, I still could not make the clear connection with the Romantic period, other than seeing him as an offspring from Whitman's style.  Since I was out of the country during that lecture, I think this added to my confusion as to how this newer generation could be included into the course. With Whitman seeming to be in a transitional stage himself (especially in regards to his free style verse), it stretched my mind to consider this group of writers to be part of the Romantic period.

    The course objectives were a great way to outline how much I knew and didn't know about Romanticism.  While some of it may be assumed (especially those in Objective 1), many of the factors in Objective 2 were not as prominent in my mind before the course started.  The racial division definitely played a role within this era, especially as depicted in the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age.  Again, I think because I took so many courses in minority literature, my mind automatically separated this group of writers.  As an extension of this thought, it was refreshing to get some more historical writings in the course.  Including speeches from this era really could drive the point home about this time period really embodying such ideals.  This hope for the future transcended even types of literature and seeing it articulated by not only popular literature, but in the political scene firmed up the overarching themes.

    As with any course, what a student thinks they know beforehand is often just a small percentage of what they end up learning from a course.  For those of us who went to US high schools, we generally took courses that covered the basics of Romanticism.  The difference between the level of a high school course to an undergraduate and then to a graduate level class can be seen in the depth of discussions.  The greatest part of small seminar classes is the ability that we have to interact.  If nothing else, we can sit around and discuss the conspiracy theories behind Poe's death!  More than that though, we had the opportunity to learn where our previous understandings had led us and to figure out how much more we could learn as a group.  For me, this course really expanded the Romantic period as something that included more than just Poe and a smattering of flowery poetry.