Romanticism

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Romanticism

• A Movement Across the Arts

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Definition

• Romanticism refers to a movement in art,
  literature, and music during the 19th century.
• Romanticism is characterized by the 5 Is
• Imagination
• Intuition
• Idealism
• Inspiration
• Individuality

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Imagination

• Imagination was emphasized over reason.
• This was a backlash against the rationalism
  characterized by the Neoclassical period or Age
  of Reason.
• Imagination was considered necessary for creating
  all art.
• British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it
  intellectual intuition.

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Intuition

• Romantics placed value on intuition, or feeling
  and instincts, over reason.
• Emotions were important in Romantic art.
• British Romantic William Wordsworth described
  poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful
  feelings.

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Idealism

• Idealism is the concept that we can make the
  world a better place.
• Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the
  spirit, the mind, or language over matter
  thought has a crucial role in making the world
  the way it is.
• Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that
  the mind forces the world we perceive to take the
  shape of space-and-time.

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Inspiration

• The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an
  inspired creator rather than a technical
  master.
• What this means is going with the moment or
  being spontaneous, rather than getting it
  precise.

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Individuality

• Romantics celebrated the individual.
• During this time period, Womens Rights and
  Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.
• Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would
  write a poem entitled Song of Myself it
  begins, I celebrate myself

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Romanticism

• values feelings over intuition
• values the power of the imagination
• seeks the beauty of unspoiled nature
• values youthful innocence
• values individual freedom
• values the lessons of the past
• finds beauty in exotic locales, the
  supernatural, and in the imagination
• values poetry as the highest expression of the
  imagination
• values myth, legend, and folk culture

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The Arts

• Romanticism was a movement across all the arts
  visual art, music, and literature.
• All of the arts embraced themes prevalent in the
  Middle Ages chivalry, courtly love. Literature
  and art from this time depicted these themes.
  Music (ballets and operas) illustrated these
  themes.
• Shakespeare came back into vogue.

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Visual Arts

• Neoclassical art was rigid, severe, and
  unemotional it hearkened back to ancient Greece
  and Rome

• Romantic art was emotional, deeply-felt,
  individualistic, and exotic. It has been
  described as a reaction to Neoclassicism, or
  anti-Classicism.

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Visual Arts Examples
Romantic Art
Neoclassical Art
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Music

• Classical musicians included composers like
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Josef Haydn.

• Romantic musicians included composers like
  Frederic Chopin, Franz Lizst, Pyotr Ilyich
  Tchaikovsky

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Music Components

• 1730-1820.
• Classical music emphasized internal order and
  balance.

• 1800-1910.
• Romantic music emphasized expression of feelings.

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Literature

• In America, Romanticism most strongly impacted
  literature.
• Writers explored supernatural and gothic themes.
  
• Writers wrote about nature Transcendentalists
  believed God was in nature, unlike Age of
  Reason writers like Franklin and Jefferson, who
  saw God as a Divine Watchmaker, who created the
  universe and left it to run itself.

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Rationalist vs. Romantics

• The rationalistic view of urban life was replaced
  by the Romantic view
• Rationalists saw cities as a place to find
  success and self-realization
• Romantics saw the city as a place of moral
  corruption, poverty, and death

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Romantics

• The Romantic journey is to the countryside
• The Romantics associated the country with
  independence, moral clarity, and purity
• The Gothic Romantic, E.A. Poe, saw the country
  as a place of phantasm
• Irving saw the country as idyllic and as an
  escape

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Romantic SensibilityQuick Recap

• Romanticism values feeling and intuition over
  reason
• Romanticism views life as we would like it to
  be, rather than how it really is
• Romanticism began in Germany and influenced
  literature, music, and art
• Romanticism reaction against Rationalism

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Romantic Escapism

• Romantic writing looked for comforting or exotic
  settings from the past
• This was found in the supernatural, in nature,
  and/or in folk legends
• Romantics believed in contemplating, or becoming
  one with the natural world
• The Gothic novel emerged from Romanticism

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Romantic Escapism

• Romanticism also used lyrical poetry as a means
  to contemplate the beauty of nature.
• It focused on simple natural beauties.
• Its intent was to seek truth through a calm
  contemplation of a simple natural beauty.
• Romantics saw God in this contemplation.

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The American Novel

• Most American Romantic writers imitated the
  European writing style.
• American Romantic novelists broke away from the
  European tradition and discovered uniquely
  American topics and settings.
• American novelists explored the vast unknown
  lands something the Europeans could not do

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American Poetry

• Most Romantic poets worked within conventional
  European literary structures.
• They proved that American poetry could reflect
  American subject matter, yet still hold to
  conventional poetic style.
• Most American Romantic poets wrote about the
  past.

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American Romantic Poetry

• The Fireside Poets, a Boston group Longfellow,
  Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell, were widely read
  and loved in America
• They were the TV of the American Romantic period
  and families gathered around the fireside to be
  entertained by their poetry
• Their subject matter was comfortable and
  instructional.

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American Hero

• American Romantic literature created this unique
  person
• he was youthful
• he was innocent
• he was intuitive
• he was one with nature
• he was a loner uneasy around women
• he was handsome
• he was brave
• he was moral and honorable
• The theme of journey as a declaration of
  independence

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American Writers

• Bryant, Homes, Whittier, Longfellow, and Lowell
  are Romantic poets.
• Irving is the Father of American Literature.
• Cooper is the Father of the American novel.
• Poe is the inventor of the American Short Story.

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American Writers

• Emerson is the Father of American
  Transcendentalism
• Thoreau is a famous practical Transcendentalist
• Melville and Hawthorne are Anti-Romantics
• Dickinson and Whitman are bridge poets between
  American Romanticism and the 20th century