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This course is designed to introduce you to a glamorous moment in French culture and the arts, namely the first half of the nineteenth-century. This was a time when talent and ingenuity, and a desire to mend the wounds left by war and terror created an aesthetic movement that brought its own form of revolution. What was it like then to be in Paris in the theater, at the ballet, in literary salons, at concerts, at the opera? How did such “cultural productions” shape the imagination and nourish the creative endeavors of many artists and writers? As there was no camera to document this moment, we’ll need to rely on writers to describe or, even better, evoke a universe of new aesthetic experiences that richly shaped the nineteenth-century literary world. What were these new visions and personal dreams? Why the exoticism? What was it like to live in a time that made it possible to carry your heart on your sleeve without ridicule? Literary writings will be our archive, as we explore such cultural offerings as romantic ballet, the stage (both as opera and theater), collaborations between musicians and writers, and translations of major romantic themes across the arts. With the help of texts and visual as well as musical examples, we will try to imagine what it means to declare yourself “un romantique.” Modern film excerpts and productions of romantic art will help us see the lasting effects of this period of cultural effervescence. Among the authors and creators whose work we will study are Victor Hugo, Nerval, Gautier, Baudelaire, Chopin and George Sand, Berlioz., Taglioni, as well as Shakespeare in French. Recommended Course Background: AS.212.302 and either AS.212.333 or AS.212.334