Why did the generation of poets born in the two decades preceding the French Revolution begin to demand a completely new kind of literature? What were their hopes for the novel, whose German word Roman gave the movement its name? What were their hopes for poetry? Why did they see a need to push poetics in the direction of philosophy and vice versa? The closing years of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century saw some of the most innovative, radical, and influential writing in the history of German literature and philosophy. In the stories, novels, and poems of the Romantic period, but also in their theoretical writings, a generation gave expression to the sense of giddiness, awe, and inspiration caused by a rapidly changing world. Modern life required a modern form of expression, and the Romantics wanted to do everything they could to find this form. In this seminar we will be following them on their encounters with modernity — we will read their writings in search of their innovations, disappointments, visions, and hopes.