The Romantic Period 1780 - 1832 Garden in Shoreham by Samuel Palmer, 1820s.
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Transcript of The Romantic Period 1780 - 1832 Garden in Shoreham by Samuel Palmer, 1820s.
The Romantic Period Garden in Shoreham by Samuel Palmer, 1820s
Key Ideas Romanticism Rejected Embraced 18th century
classicism
Freedom of individual expression The ordered rationality of the
Enlightenment Feelings of sincerity, spontaneity and originality
Impersonal and artificial feeling Emotional directness Aristocratic
patronage Emotional intensity Mechanical convention Power of the
imagination Conservative morality Major Events American and French
revolutions (fighting for democracy) influenced and inspired many
people, including literary figures People in Britain who supported
the ideals of the Revolution were claimed as English Jacobins After
Britain went to war against France, those in Britain who supported
the revolution were declared either unpatriotic or traitors Key
Terms Sublime Sensibility Transcend Pantheism Economy Britain
relinquished control over its American colonies but found a new
empire in other parts of the world it was transforming into a
global superpower; colonial trade was an idea close to home for
poets such as Coleridge Began the period as an agrarian economy; by
the end of the period, became a rapidly industrialising nation
Population of England more than doubled, contributing to the
process of urbanisation Industrial Revolution Improved transport
system, therefore improved connectivity between people Changing
conditions of rural life due to the industrial process Philosophy
Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Rousseau
What shall I do when I have read all the books? Goodwin O for a
life of sensations rather than of thoughts. Keats Philosophy
Copernicun revolution (Immanuel Kant) both reason and experience
are necessary for human knowledge (using reason without applying it
to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be
purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason).
For example, notions of God, freedom and eternity were unknowable
ideas, but necessary for us to make sense of reality The Romantics
favoured: Concrete over abstract Variety over uniformity Nature
over culture, convention and artifice Freedom over constraint,
rules and limitations The unique individual to the average man Free
creative genius to prudent good sense Feeling to thought Emotion to
calculation Intuition to intellect Natural Philosophy Until the
1840's what we now call science was "natural philosophy," Natural
philosophy: arose before the development of modern science; study
of the natural and physical universe; enquiry into the powers and
phenomena of the natural world, demonstrating the splendours of
Gods creation Experience and argument attempting to explain or
describe nature Science Scientific agriculture
Major advances in mathematics, physics, chemistry, optics,
electromagnetism and biology battled against natural philosophy
Romantics often depicted as being opposed to Science but many were
deeply interested in scientific enquiry what they were against was
the complete removal of mystery and the divine from nature
Coleridge denied that matter and spirit were distinct properties
leads to the idea of pantheism, where God is imminent in nature and
not transcendent; although Coleridge was always tempted by the idea
of pantheism, he struggled to resist it Isaac Newton Isaac
Newton
ENLIGHTENMENT Rationalism Isaac Newton Nature is subject to laws
which can be expressed with mathematical certainty The physical
world is orderly, explicable, regular, logical Mans rational
capacity and the use of science can penetrate the mysteries of
nature ROMANTICISM Relativism Isaac Newton The universe is organic,
alive, becoming, evolving, expanding An admiration for all the
potency and diversity of living nature God in Nature; the unseen
world, the supernatural, the mysterious Religion Revival of
evangelicals committed to strict morality
Conflict between the belief of the origin of the world and the idea
of evolution Institution of the established Church was under threat
Growth in religious sects William Blake was attracted to the
writings of the Swedish mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg Romantics
generally rejected absolute systems, such as religion, in favour of
the idea that each person must create their own system by which to
live During the romantic era, Religion was aestheticized
Romanticists felt free to draw on religious imagery and allusion
but without pressure to be conventionally pious Religion continued
Romantic literature Romanticism is antithetical to
eighteenth-century neo-classicism Romantic poets: William Blake,
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley,
John Keats and Lord Byron. These poets formed the literary movement
known as Romanticism, which marked a profound shift in sensibility
The products of Romanticism tend to be radical or revolutionary
(inspired by the French and American revolutions) Criticism of
romantic writing: it deliberately ignores material reality and
social concerns in its pursuit of transcendence and mysticism
Sensibility Sensibility was considered a purely feminine attribute.
During the Romantic period, there was a strong differentiation
between masculine and feminine: women were the guardians of the
private sphere (including such things as morality and the home);
men were the leaders of the public sphere (political, civil and
intellectual life) Fears of sensibility were that it would lead to
hysteria and disorder, the over-cultivation of the senses at the
expense of reason and judgement, it might lead to men behaving like
women and it might lead to sexual impropriety and ruin The idea of
sensibility soon became politicised and considered to be too
closely associated with radical and reformist ideas In James
Gilrays satire The New Morality, British reformers and radicals
worship at the shrine of the new trinity (Philanthropy, Sensibility
and Benevolence) Sublime Picturesque Sublime Sublime continued The
words sublime, beautiful and picturesque were often used to
describe the landscape Romantic poets found ordinary descriptions
of beauty as inadequate and too formulaic they focused instead on
the sublime, where an encounter with nature became a quasi-mystical
or even religious experience Romantic Poetry 1st generation of
poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge
2nd generation of poets: Shelley & Keats Some contention
between generations 2nd generation were born after the French
Revolution and so reacted against the elder poets Wordsworth and
Coleridge wrote poetry as a response to the changing rural life;
they describe the plight of people on the margins of existence and
the sufferings of the rustic people as a result of the fall in
rural earnings and rising cost in provisions Language Romantic
poets moved away from structured forms of poetry which they saw to
be artificial In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth
defended the rustic nature of their subjects and the language used
by the poets, stating that it was the language really used by men
The Lakes District, England
Inspiration for Wordsworth and Coleridge Lake Windamere Lakes
District Coniston Mountains Coniston Mountains Dove Cottage
Wordsworths grave Grasmere Wordsworth William Wordsworth was born
on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District.
The magnificent landscape deeply affected Wordsworth's imagination
and gave him a love of nature. In 1795 he met Coleridge. Encouraged
by Coleridge and stimulated by the close contact with nature,
Wordsworth composed his first masterwork, Lyrical Ballads, which
opened with Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." After the winter of ,
which he spend in Germany with Coleridge, he moved Dove Cottage,
Grasmere, and in 1802 married Mary Hutchinson. Coleridge Born 1772
in Devon, England (the youngest son of a clergyman) 1795 wrote The
Eolian Harp for Sara Fricker who he later married this was not a
happy marriage 1797 met Dorothy and William Wordsworth and wrote
Kubla Khan 1798 wrote Frost at Midnight 1799 published the Lyrical
Ballads with Wordsworth which included The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner 1799 met Sara Hutchinson who became his lifelong love 1800
became addicted to opium 1804 separated from his wife and spent the
following years in the Mediterranean and London 1808 lived with
Wordsworth in Grasmere 1810 quarrelled with Wordsworth and left the
Lakes District forever; spent the remaining years in London 1816 in
an attempt to control his opium addiction he moved in with Dr James
Gillman in London where he lived for the remainder of his life 1834
died Bibliography ( ). The Literature Network, Jalic Inc. Accessed
9th November, (2008) Wikipedia: Immanuel Kant, Wikimedia Foundation
Inc. Accessed 11th November, (2008) Wikipedia: Natural Philosophy,
Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Accessed 11th November, Ross, K. (2007).
Beginning of Modern Science and Modern Philosophy, Kelley L. Ross.
Accessed 12th November, (2002) Teachit. Poplawski, P (Ed.). (2008).
English Literature in Context, Cambridge University Press, England.
(2007) HSC English Prescriptions Unit of Work, NSW Department of
Education and Training, Australia.