Romanticism

1
Romanticism

• A Literary, Intellectual, and Artistic Movement

2
What is Romanticism?

• Movement and School of Thought
• Valued and emphasized feelings, emotion, and
  Intuition
• Against Rationalism
• Not centered around romance

3
When and Where did Romanticism Take Place?

• Officially from 1798-1832, starting in Germany
  and England
• Based on English and German literature
• Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge
• Hymns to the Night by Novalis
• Deaths of Sir Walter Scott and Goethe
• When considering movement as a whole, and its
  influence, there is different time period
• 1770s-1870s
• Later for America
• Peak from 1800-1850s

4
What Else Was Happening in the World?

• American Revolution
• French Revolution
• Industrial Revolution- Led by Rationalism
• Rise of factories
• Disregarding nature
• Mindless jobs
• Worse Conditions
• Revolutions of 1848
• Dominance of Enlightenment ideals and rational
  thought
• Westward Expansion

5
Causes and Influences

• Many disagreed with Rationalism
• Effects of Industrial Revolution pointed out
  Rationalisms flaws
• Pollution
• Deforestation
• Often dirty urban life
• Monotonous Factory Jobs
• People already accustomed to drastic changes
• People were accustomed to challenging the status
  quo
• Westward expansion in America
• Closer contact with Nature

6
Characteristics of Romantic Thought

• Valued feelings, emotions, and intuition
• Imagination was highest faculty of the mind
• Ultimate creative power
• More important that reason
• Relished beauty of nature
• Viewed as organic, encompassing emotion, not just
  objectively and analytically
• Importance of the Individual and uniqueness
• Freedoms of speech, experimentation, and writing
  without constraints
• More to life than rational thought could
  encompass
• Complexity of the commonplace and beauty of the
  exotic
• Many paradoxes. Example Natural and Supernatural

7
Other Characteristics

• Poetry was highest embodiment of imagination
• Searched for exotic settings removed from
  industrial influences
• Tried to reflect on the natural world to reveal
  its underlying beauty
• Not just analyze it rationally or scientifically
• Emphasized importance of local language and
  tradition
• Nationalism and unity

8
Some Major People

• Wordsworth- British
• Coleridge- British
• Nathaniel Hawthorne- American
• Sir Walter Scott- British
• Goethe- German
• Longfellow- American
• Emily Dickinson- American
• Walt Whitman- American

9
Some American Writers

• James Fenimore Cooper
• Emily Dickinson
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Walt Whitman
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

10
Major Literary Impacts

• Poetry became much more popular and important
• Lyric Poetry flourished
• New emphasis on creative writing
• Increased volume of literature focused on nature
• Literature seen as organic
• It is the the spontaneous overflow of powerful
  feeling -Wordsworth
• Realization that literature did not need to be
  rational and scientific to be influential

11
American Literary Characteristics

• Embodies Romanticisms ideas
• Emphasizes individualism and spiritual intuition
• Use of many literary techniques such as
• Symbols
• Myths
• Fantastical elements
• Vivid imagery
• Colloquial Language
• Some techniques used to express the protagonist's
  mental processes or to convey deeper
  psychological or archetypal themes
• Not held or defined by conventional societys
  constraints
• Portrays nature as a sanctum for the self
• Highlights how intuition can conflict with
  conventional social and religious dogma
• Illustrates futile and destructive nature of
  their questing heroes

12
Common Literary Themes

• Highly Imaginative
• Emotionally Intense
• Expresses escapism
• Portrays the common man as a hero
• Portrays nature as a refuge as well as a source
  of knowledge and spirituality

13
Some Famous Literary Works

• The Scarlet Letter
• Moby Dick
• Leaves of Grass
• Lyrical Ballads
• Hymns to the Night
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Frankenstein

14
A Summer Day by the Sea

• By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The sun is set and in his latest beams
•   Yon little cloud of ashen gray and gold,
•   Slowly upon the amber air unrolled,
•   The falling mantle of the Prophet seems.
• From the dim headlands many a light-house gleams,
•   The street-lamps of the ocean and behold,
•   O'erhead the banners of the night unfold
•   The day hath passed into the land of dreams.
• O summer day beside the joyous sea!
•   O summer day so wonderful and white,
•   So full of gladness and so full of pain!
• Forever and forever shalt thou be
•   To some the gravestone of a dead delight,
•   To some the landmark of a new domain.