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By turning away from strict rationalism and its ideals of perfectibility, it was inevitable that Romanticism would also discover and investigate the darker aspects of our humanity. There is a whole strain of writing and thinking within Romanticism that subverts its ideal utopian visions. While most prominent in the works of American writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Meville, it can be traced back to the incorporation of Gothic writing by authors like Mary Shelley, the fascination with the fall of mankind and Satan by writers like William Blake, or the cynicism of authors like Lord Byron. In this seminar, we will trace the extent of Dark Romanticism within Anglophone literature, analysing and connecting some of the most important texts of the period.
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