POLITICIZING PROMETHEUS:

REVOLUTIONS & RE-INVENTING PROMETHEUS IN ROMANTIC LITERATURE AND ART

RE-INVENTING PROMETHEUS AND ROMANTIC THEORIES OF REVOLUTION
Instructor: Adam R. Rosenthal
Email: arrosenthal@tamu.edu
Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Office Hours: TBA

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Fascination with the Greek myth of Prometheus in the Romantic period could not be restricted to
any one domain, nor any one national tradition. A story of the origins of technology and sexual
difference, the Prometheus myth would become a vehicle for XX and X.
On the one hand show the Greek roots for Romantic retellings, and to put into view what the
rewritings attain. On the other hand, to follow Romantic engagements with revolutionary
thought, politics, art and science.
On the other hand we will look at how the myth comes into sync with concurrent Romantic
thoughts of imagination, political abolition, critique and X.
Scientific Revolution
Political Revolution
Creative/Artistic Revolution
Science and politics (newton/kant)universal history? Carlyle, the french revolution
Pandoras Breeches Coin (Paine)
Thoreau translation of prometheus/Medwin translation
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (conservatism, convince british not to revolt)
Paintings:
William Blake, Prometheus Bound (Painting)
Heinrich von Fger, Prometheus Brings Fire to Mankind (1817) & Hercules Freeing
Prometheus
John Flaxman, Prometheus Chaind (1795)
Franz Liszt Prometheus, symphonic poem No. 5
James Gates Percival, Prometheus (5pp) (american) 1821
American abolutionist Prometheus
Joseph Lloyd Brereton (A. Rugman), Prometheus Britannicus; or, John Bull and the rural police
(1840)
Thomas Medwin
Pandoras Breeches Coin

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
VII.

VI.

Part One: Sovereignty and Revolt

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (excerpts)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men
Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound
Thomas Medwin, Prometheus the Fire-bearer
Joseph Lloyd Brereton (A. Rugman), Prometheus Britannicus; or, John Bull and the
rural police (1840)
Part Two: Technological Pharmakons, Or the Story of Pandora
Hesiod, Works and Days & Theogony (excerpts)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Part Three: Imagination and the Creative Act (Fire)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Prometheus (1773), Ganymede (1779) &
Prometheus: A Dramatic Fragment (1773)
William Wordsworth, The Two-Book Prelude (1798)
John Keats,
Lord Byron, Prometheus
Franz Liszt Prometheus, symphonic poem No. 5
John Flaxman, Prometheus Chaind (painting)
William Blake, Prometheus Bound (painting)
Heinrich von Flger, Prometheus Brings Fire to Mankind (1817) & Hercules Freeing
Prometheus (paintings)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
James Gates Percival, Prometheus. A Poem. (1821)

REQUIREMENTS:

Two short papers (5-7pp) and one final paper (10-12pp). Attendance and active class
participation are required. Students must also give one formal in-class presentation, prepared and
written out ahead of time. Finally, students will be expected to submit short (1-2 page) reading
responses to three of the readings covered in class.
PARTICIPATION:
Each student is expected to attend every class and to participate actively in class discussions.
Preparation for class involves reading and taking notes on the texts assigned for each session.
ATTENDANCE:
More than four absences (excused or unexcused) are inappropriate and will lower your grade.
Every time you are absent after the allotted four will bring your grade down one third of a grade
(from an A to an A-, from an A- to a B+, etc.). Every three times you are late will count as one
absence. Vacations or sporting events or school activities do not give you permission to exceed a
total of four absences, except in the case of extreme circumstances.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is a serious offense. Plagiarism will result in the failure of the plagiarized assignment,
and in an official report being submitted to the university Honor council. Plagiarism does not
only include verbatim copying of essays or paragraphs, but also improper citation or paraphrase
of ideas borrowed from any source other than your own thoughts and the readings.
GRADING:
First paper: 25% Final paper: 35% Presentation: 10% Participation: 30% [Includes attendance,
participation and reading response papers]
REQUIRED TEXTS:
FALL 2014
WEEK ONE

WEEK TWO

INTRODUCTION

PART I:

WEEK THREE
WEEK FOUR
WEEK FIVE

WEEK SIX
WEEK SEVEN

PART II:

WEEK EIGHT
WEEK NINE
WEEK TEN
WEEK ELEVEN
WEEK TWELVE

PART III:

WEEK THIRTEEN
WEEK FOURTEEN
WEEK FIFTEEN

PART IV:

WEEK SIXTEEN
READING WEEK
Conclusion