Texts in

Time

R

O

M

A

N

T

I

C

I

S

M

1770s – 1850s

The categories which it has become customary to use in distinguishing and classifying movements in literature or philosophy and in describing the nature of the significant

transitions which have taken place in taste and in opinion, are far too rough, crude, undiscriminating -- and none of

them so hopelessly as the category Romantic. Arthur O. Lovejoy (1924)

Defining Romanticism

Romanticism is a difficult and often contentious term to try and define. As one of the most complex ‘isms’ of literary style, it is

not a genre, ideology or clearly delineated style. It is underpinned by a paradigm shift in thinking, spawned in part

by pressures for social, economic and political change.

Enormous Social Change: The Impact of Industrialization

Workers in a Tobacco Factory

Poverty, social marginalisation

Mechanisation resulted in dangerous and

dehumanizing working conditions and low

wages

Revolution – Liberty and Social Justice

American War of Independence 1776

Revolutionary and Napoleonic period in France, 1789-1815

French uprisings 1830 – overthrow of Bourbon monarchy

‘Neither a revolt nor a reaction, Romanticism was a revolutionary fulfilment.’ Professor Eugene Vinaver

NATURE

Neo-Classical Romantic• Universal• Subject to human control• Gardens• Source of peace and

tranquillity• Untamed nature:

dangerous/evil

• Particular• Beyond human control• Mountains, oceans,

forests• Source of inspiration

and spirituality• Untamed nature:

exhilarating/sublime

Yet having felt the power of nature, by the gentle agency of natural objects, led me on to feel the passions that were not my

own. (Wordsworth)

Major beliefs and ideas There is no single commonly accepted definition of

Romanticism, but it has some features upon which there is general agreement. Encyclopaedia Britannica

•diversity and originality over uniformity and rigid forms or patterns•equality and egalitarian freedom over constraint and repression•sensibility over reason•individuality over conformity•imagination over intellectualism•nature over technology•exotic and mysterious over the mundane and known

Romanticism -Rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization and

rationality (Classicism)Reaction against the Enlightenment and physical

materialismEmphasis on the:• Individual • Subjective • Irrational • Imaginative • Personal • Emotional• Visionary• Transcendental

Valued:• Sublime power of nature• Emotion over reason• Senses over intellect• Individuality and

eccentricity• Genius • Solitude • The Common man and

rural lifestyle

Individualism I must create my own system or be enslaved by another man’s.

(William Blake)

Romanticism:

• Emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind

• Valued the exploration and evaluation of the inner self

• Valorized individuality and the innate dignity of the common man and the ‘noble savage’

ImaginationMan is all imagination’(William Blake)

Friedrich Schlegel echoed similar ideas in describing Romanticist literature as, ‘depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form. Introspection and reflection could liberate the thinker into a heightened spiritual

state, allowing reason to be suppressed.’

Contemporary critic R.A. Foakes affirms the value Romantics placed on the power of the imagination as

well individualism and resistance to the dictates of authority, arguing; ‘Rules of any kind, including literary

rules, were viewed as contrivance and not as art.’

IdealismRalph Emerson (1803-1882) championed humanity’s innate

goodness and limitless potential by questioning ‘Who can set bounds to the possibilities of man?’

• Romanticism was philosophically rooted in idealism.• Belief that the ideal world (that of the mind) was “more

real” than the real, material world• Romanticism tended to be optimistic in its outlook on

life.• Philosophers such as Rousseau, Kant and Schelling

argued that humanity could live according to higher principles, such as the beliefs in social equality, freedom, and human rights.

• The Romantic era was a time of reappraisal and reassessment; of intellectual, scientific and artistic exploration; a search for meaning and truth

Contextual Impact on texts?• ‘Politically, Romanticism has been associated with every view

from liberalism to extreme authoritarianism.’ Carl Slevin

• A second wave of Romanticists, including Keats, argued that economic progress came at the cost of increasing poverty,

urban over-crowding and dehumanised working conditions. • Impetus of change fostered sweeping changes across the arts• New emphasis on use of everyday language and experience.• ‘All over Europe, people were becoming more conscious of their history and destiny, their national character, and their artistic heritage. Musicians made use of myth, legend, folk songs, nationalistic themes and symbols in their compositions while writers and poets used chivalric themes and settings.’ H.KermanEnlightenment rationalism, decorum, order and emotional control

was replaced by a new commitment to innovation, diversity, imaginative and emotional expression.

H. Fairchild argues that the ‘Romantics viewed the Medieval past nostalgically, as a time lived before science had chilled and mechanized the mind. They also celebrated illusion, fancy, passion, and the variety and spontaneity of life, viewing the literature of that period as stimulus material for realizing the ideal and idealizing the real.’

Idealisation of the past

Poets, artists and authors such as Sir Walter Scott, dramatically reinvented the medieval period.

‘Ruins were sentimentalized as iconic of the action of Nature on the works of man, and mythic and legendary material which would previously have been seen as low culture became a common basis for works of high art and literature. The subject matter as well as the way in which it was treated underwent a change.’ N. Ingwersen

Eighteenth century philosopher, Edmund Burke, claimed that ‘while small, smooth and ordered

things could be beautiful, sublime objects found in Nature by contrast, were vast, magnificent

and awe-inspiring.’

Poets and artists often used nature as allegorical comments on spiritual, moral, historical or philosophical issues.

Exotic scenery and imaginary landscapes provide a way to reality, not an escape from it. Edwin M. Eigner

Professor John Lye describes the Gothic Romance style as one that, ‘specialized in symbolic exploration of the unconscious through the strange, the haunting, and irrational.’

The Gothic Novel -Conventions, motifs and themes

The Castle of Otranto

‘THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO’ -1765

Triggered the English Gothic novel.

Walpole’s use of fear, suspence, errie

locations and other genre tropes

spawned a series of ‘horrible’ novels that

were parodied by Jane Austen in

‘Northanger Abbey’

The conventions of gothic literature include wild and desolate landscapes, ancient buildings such as ruined castles or monasteries, apparitions, demons and monsters set within a menacing atmosphere of gloom that evokes horror, disgust or terror.

Gothicism versus Romanticism?

J. McGann stresses, ‘Given its interest in attacking received ideas of uniformity, standardization, and universality, Romanticism put a very high value on the unique, the peculiar, the local; what Schlegel called the abnormal species of literature . . . even the eccentric and monstrous.’

Dreams/Visions:

Terrible truths are often revealed to characters through dreams or visions. The hidden knowledge of the universe and of human nature emerges through dreams because, when the person sleeps, reason sleeps, and the supernatural, unreasonable world can break through. Dreams in Gothic literature express the dark, unconscious depths of the psyche that are repressed by reason— truths that are too terrible to be comprehended by the conscious mind.

Northanger Abbey -Jane Austen • Considered a Gothic parody but

also representing a hybridized mixture of neo-classicist, comedy of manners and romantic literary elements.

• In Austen’s time, novels were often denigrated

• Coleridge maintained, “where the reading of novels prevails as a habit, it occasions in time the entire destruction of the powers of the mind.”

• Most novel readers were women

Northanger Abbey CriticismReflects the commercialization of literature during

the late 18th century– 18th century brings more public circulation of libraries– commercialization of literature and textual skimming,

changes the way people read stories– Novel offers a critical lens on social flaws such as

materialism and reading habits– Literature: for self-improvement or social standard?

Benedict, Barbara.

Catherine is ‘frequently duped by the harsh world” Northanger Abbey conveys Austen’s theme of “the importance of the education of judgment’ Nicola Cummins

Classicism - Austen StyleSatiric Style• Her style is focused on the realistic representation of HER

society - highlights the flaws and foibles through wit and humour. This aspect of her work also enables her to fit into the ‘comedy of manners’ mould.

• concerned with studying the human character and social conventions of her time

• Strong focus on social etiquette and manners• Austen’s unique style cannot be easily classified into

romanticism or classicism - foregrounds control, sense, decorum, politeness

Great diversity of subjects and style.Innovative use of form, colour and medium.

Romantic Artist

• Loner

• Unconventional

• Interested in the “noble savage”

• Amoral

• Genius

• ProphetGeorge Gordon Lord Byron

Romanticism in FranceGericault, The Raft of the Medusa,

1818• Government ship bound for

Senegal wrecked in 1816• Life boats accommodated the

wealthy, 149 other passengers were deserted by the captain, placed in a raft 65 by 35 and cut loose in the Atlantic

• Only 15 survived• Géricault made scale model of

raft in his studio, interviewed and painted survivors

• Concentration on moment of rescue

• Use of foreshortening• Pyramid structure• Heroic musculature

• Delacroix upside-down in foreground• Monochromatic• Concentric zones: outer margin of

green water and blue sky frames the brown mass of raft which, in turn, holds the grayish figures

• Appears in twilight, warm diffuse glow of the morning sun

• Foreground: weight of corpses and massive mourners

• Middle ground: figures lifting and holding

• Ascent: climax of the painting at the intersection of the diagonals

• Painting dips down into our own space

• References to Michelangelo

Romanticist Poets

English Romanticist Poets

• WILLIAM BLAKE

•WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

•SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE

Romantic Poets

Coleridge’s poetry often deals with the

misterious, the supernatural and the extraordinary. While

Wordsworth looked for the spiritual in

everyday subjects, Coleridge wanted to

give the supernatural a colouring of everyday

reality.

In 1816, Coleridge described imagination as a ‘reconciling and mediatory power.’ His

mystery poems show how it can heighten consciousness

through fusing vision, memory and intuition. Louis Cazamian says that, ‘Coleridge’s art lies in his faculty of evoking the

mystery of things’. His dream states can be positive or

negative. ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ graphically

represents a nightmarish existence.

Mystery Poems

Conversation Poems Descriptive and meditative in style with blank verse used to mimic the rhythms and tones of spoken language. An expositional context orientates reader to situation, location and characters. Readers are invited to listen to what the poet says, followed by an imaginative recount of experience before returning to the initial situation. Cyclical structure as in ‘The Lime-Tree Bower’ prompts self-awareness and reflection on the issues that have been raised.

• GEORGE BYRON

• PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

• JOHN KEATS

Romantic Poets

John Keats John Keats (1795 –1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. During his short life, his work received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day. Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize Keats's poetry, including a series of odes that were his masterpieces and which remain among the most popular poems in English literature. The main theme of his poetry is: the conflict betwenn the real world of suffering, death and decay and the ideal world of beauty, imagination and eternal youth.

Ode on a Grecian Urn• The Ode describes an ancient

greek urn decorated with classical motifs:A Dionysian festival with music and ecstatic dances, a piper under the trees in a pastoral setting, a young man in love pursuing a girl and almost reaching her, a procession of townspeople and priest leading a cow to the sacrifice.Keats is fascinated by the fact that art is able to present an ideal world because it can freeze actions and emotions: the lover depicted on the urn will never actually reach the girl he is following, the pipers will never end their song, the streets of the little town will always be desert and silent. The beauty of the girl, the ardent passion of her lover, the pleasure of the music and the boughs in bloom will never fade.

Famous Romantic PoetsWilliam Blake

William Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. His father was a successful London hosier and attracted by the doctrines of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was first educated at home, chiefly by his mother. His parents encouraged him to collect prints of the Italian masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars' drawing school. From his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks, he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures. Independent through his life, Blake left no debts at his death on August 12, 1827. He was buried in an unmarked grave at the public cemetery of Bunhill Fields.

William Wordsworth’s poetry emphasies the value

of childhood experience an the

celebration of nature. He glorifies the spirit of man,

living in armony with his natural

environment, far from the spiritually bankrupt city. Him being pantheistic

identified the nature with god.

Wordsworth

--- poetry is spontaneous

--- nature inspires poetry

--- common subjects can be poetic (the world of simple, natural things, in the countryside or among the people)

Coleridge

--- the strange, the exotic, the mysterious

--- the combination of the natural with the supernatural, the ordinary with the extraordinary

Keats

--- a response to sensuous impressions--- a response to sensuous impressions

--- love of nature and art, a compassion for humanity--- love of nature and art, a compassion for humanity

Individual Power and Revolutionary Fervor in MusicBeethoven

TchaikovskyVerdi

Wagner