Shakespeare and Romanticism - Hamann-Rose

The current standing of William Shakespeare as the unrivalled hero on the stage of English and world literature was largely the product of the eighteenth century. From revivals of Shakespeare’s plays early in the century onwards, the fame and public esteem of the up to that point relatively minor cultural figure grew exponentially and came to a head in the period now commonly referred to as Romanticism. In this period, spanning the last decades of the eighteenth and most of the first half of the nineteenth century, Shakespeare became a central influence and reflector for a new generation of writers and artists, from William Blake and Walter Scott to Charlotte Smith and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His works proved a rich rhetorical and thematic reservoir which the Romantics raided to construct their own poetic visions and imaginaries, while his increasing popularity as a cultural icon offered many the opportunity to appropriate him for their own commercial and political ends. In this course we will examine and discuss a variety of media exemplifying the Romantic fascination with but also re-imagination of Shakespeare, including literary engagements with his work and person but also other cultural and artistic products, like paintings or political writings, all showcasing the period’s manifold obsession with ‘the Bard’.