American Romanticism Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2010

Denielle Alexander

My Past Knowledge of Romanticism, Uses for Understanding Romanticism, and Progression in Learning More about Romanticism

This American Romanticism course has influenced me in a way that I suspect differs somewhat from its impact on the majority of students. Everything I have learned throughout the semester has been new and unfamiliar. I did not have much background information about what Romanticism is and what elements define it through literature. It is safe to say that this course has helped me to develop critical thinking skills when analyzing literature and to ask questions to deepen my understanding of unfamiliar literature. I will be able to take these skills with me after the course is concluded and use them in my professional career.

Critical and logical thinking is one of my daily job requirements, but most of the subjects I encounter are at least somewhat familiar to me. In this course, almost everything was foreign. I did not have experience in Romanticism or any of the texts studied throughout my graduate program. In order to understand the course, I had to think outside the box, ask questions, and do research beyond the class. For every class period, I spent some time researching terms and themes that I did not previously know. In my professional career, which is public relations, if I approach an issue, subject, or problem that I do not have any background in, I am now able to ask question to achieve a better understanding, do outside research to familiarize myself with the subject, and think critically to explore the situation and be more able to solve it, understand it, or redefine it.

As I transition into my final semester at the University of Houston- Clear Lake, I have a better grounding in different genres of literary work and authors. Before this class, I was very limited, only because I never studied Romance literature before. While completing my literary exam to graduate, I now have a wider selection of literature beyond minority literature, immigrant literature, and authors who examine the world of language and semiotics. Over the course of this semester, I have acquired better research skills. This will allow me to continue exploring my interests in different literary works through scholarly research, both online and in print.

My intake on my learning process is that I am improving and still learning. I have no definite answers to any of my questions, but I do have the understanding to ask more questions and become able to further my knowledge. It is good to know that I have a variety of literature to choose from and am able to go beyond the scope of what I knew before.

Two of the main highlights in this course, the Sublime and Gothicism, have attracted my attention and interest more than any other aspects of the class. The very first day of class was daunting to me. I learned new literary terms that would be used throughout the course. It took me two class seminars to gain a good understanding of what exactly is meant by terms Sublime and Gothicism and how they relate to Romanticism. The Sublime is a mixture of pleasure, pain, beauty, and terror—something that is unexplainable, causing a loss for words, caught in the moment, causing oooo’s and awwwh’s.  As I expanded my learning about the Gothic theme, I discovered that the color code, nature, dark language, and the physical aesthetics of European castles and mansions are just a few characteristics that define Gothicism and how the inclusion of the gothic makes a text romantic. As I began to learn these terms, I reflected on the literature I read in past seminars and began to define the Sublime and Gothicism. I found a subtle connection and discovered that most literature can be categorized as romance literature because the scope of Romanticism is so wide, so general, and has so many themes and terms.

Romance is not always your typical love story with courtship, chivalry, and happy endings. It has many facets the students can explore and indentify with. I honestly still do not have any definite answers, nor can I completely understand the wide range of romantic literature. Now, however, I do have the background necessary for me to be able to research it, read romantic texts while indentifying their romantic terms and themes, and advance my knowledge and understanding throughout my academic career.