Solitude, Society and Loneliness in Romanticism and Modern Culture
COL 288Z
Summer 2023 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 268Z |
We are now living in an age of constant connection to anybody, anywhere, at any time. An indirect result of this is that individual privacy and solitude are being sacrificed (sometimes consciously, sometimes not) for the pleasures as well as the risks of interconnection. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has, however, highlighted the risks of extended solitude, which has made reconnection a newly relevant theme in our lives. We thus find ourselves at a moment in history when we think of both solitude and connection with deep feelings of ambivalence. How can literature, sociology, art, and film about solitude and connection help us to think clearly and deeply about their roles in our lives?
We will read and discuss authors who consider the risks and pleasures both of solitude and interconnection, from early Romantic writers such as Mary Shelley, to American Romantics such as Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson, to modern European writers such as Franz Kafka and Dino Buzzati. We will also examine non-fiction works such as Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We will use these works ultimately to consider our own culture of interconnectivity. What place and meaning do the solitude and privacy so prominent in Romantic literature have in a modern culture that makes them virtually obsolete? What can films such as Kieslowki's A Short Film about Love and Hitchcock's Rear Window show us about the relationship of solitude and privacy? More generally, what can these books and films tell us about solitude and interconnection in and since the nineteenth century? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA COL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Sherry Turkle, RECLAIMING CONVERSATION: THE ART OF TALK IN A DIGITAL AGE; Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN; Henry David Thoreau, WALDEN; Virginia Woolf, A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN; Ralph Waldo Emerson, NATURE; Franz Kafka, THE METAMORPHOSIS; Dino Buzzati, THE TARTAR STEPPE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will write two papers on how different works of literature approach the theme of human solitude and connection and give one individual presentation on the relevance of one work of literature or one film to our modern concerns with interconnection and solitude. As well, students will receive a grade for the creation of and response to regular discussion posts. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Full syllabi will be linked as they become available. |
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