In this course, we will interrogate romantic longing as an aesthetic and ethical project. We will locate our roots in Plato’s Symposium, then trace a cross-era path through chivalric and pastoral romances as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels. In the course’s second half, we will land in the twenty-first century, immersing ourselves in contemporary romance, romantic comedy, and related forms. Across these centuries and texts, we will query: What are the aesthetic and ethical stakes of romance? What forms of romantic love are valued or socially sanctioned across our texts, and have those values shifted in our contemporary moment? How are romantic genres gendered and what is the history of this gendering of romantic forms? In other words, when did we begin to gender romance as feminine or feminized?
Course Code
ENGL 3559
Credits
3
Department
Cristina Griffin