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Literary Romanticism

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46 views4 pages

Literary Romanticism

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ayadi aya
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Literary Romanticism

Romanticism was a literary movement that originated in Europe,


spanning roughly 1790–1850. It began in the late 18th century, ending
around the middle of the 19th century—although its influence
continues to this day.

Romanticism can be seen as a reaction to the huge changes in society


that occurred during this period, including the revolutions that burned
through countries like France and the United States, ushering in grand
experiments in democracy.

Prominent Romantic writers include John Keats, William


Wordsworth, William Blake, Jane Austen, Samuel Coleridge, Percy
Shelley, and Mary Shelley... Romanticism started with the publication
of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, by Wordsworth.

Romanticism Definition

The term Romanticism does not stem directly from the concept of
love, but rather from the French word romaunt (a romantic story told in
verse). Romanticism focused on emotions and the inner life of the
writer, and often used autobiographical material to inform the work or
even provide a template for it, unlike traditional literature at the time.

Romanticism celebrated the primitive and elevated "regular people"


as being deserving of celebration, which was an innovation at the time.
Romanticism also fixated on nature as a primordial force and
encouraged the concept of isolation as necessary for spiritual and
artistic development.

Romanticism believes in superiority of poetry as a literary genre, and


considers fiction as a lower form of expression. However, it rejects the
rigid poetics forms, the chivalry of the knightly class of feudal times
and heroic couplets; it opts for the simple language of ordinary people.

In fiction, Romanticism is often expressed through an emphasis on


the individual hero and the expression of his emotional experience, and
the plot coincides with his emotional conflicts.

Background:

 It came partly as a re action to the rationalism and empiricism of


the age of Enlightenment, focusing on society at the expense of the
individual.
 The American and French revolutions, among others, as well as the
emergence of the sociopolitical theory resulted in the predominance
of the principles of liberty, the overthrow of patriarchal monarchies.

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Therefore, the unlimited potential and freedom of the human being
were manifested.
 With the decline of traditional monarchies, the Church started to
lose control over people. Hence, the subjective (Romantic)
interpretation of the human experience was favored, instead of the
interpretations indicated by the Church, or tradition or science.
 The Industrial Revolution (1760) resulted in the decline of morality,
rise of cities, slavery of the new working class; thus, Romanticism
was a way to seek salvation.

Characteristics and Themes of Romanticism

Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism


includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity;
freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs
that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of
and worship of nature.

Romantic literature is marked by six primary characteristics:

1/ Celebration of Nature: Romantic writers saw nature as a teacher


and a source of infinite beauty. Influenced by Pantheism, a doctrine
which identifies God with the universe, the Romantic poets aimed to
escape the pressures and evils of the industrial revolution, and believed
God can be found only in nature, and no more the church; they sought
salvation in the countryside and the primitive to be united with God
through the contemplation of the beauty of pure nature.
2/ Focus on the Individual and Spirituality: Romantic writers turned
inward, valuing the individual experience above all else. This in turn
led to heightened sense of spirituality in Romantic work, and the
addition of occult and supernatural elements.
Themes can be also inspired by the authors' dreams (Coleridge's poem
Kubla Khan 1816), or visions (Byron's poem She Walks in Beauty).
The expression of personal emotions and feelings is recommended in
Romantic poetry, which relies on the poet's intuition and emotions to
interpret the world rather than logic and physical facts. It is marked by
a focus on the individual (and the unique perspective of a person, often
guided by irrational, emotional impulses).
3/ Celebration of Isolation and Melancholy: Ralph Waldo's 1841
essay Self-Reliance is a seminal work of Romantic writing in which he
exhorts the value of looking inward and determining your own path,
and relying on only your own resources.
Related to the insistence on isolation, melancholy is a key feature of
many works of Romanticism, usually seen as a reaction to inevitable
failure—writers wished to express the pure beauty they perceived and
failure to do so adequately resulted in despair.
4/ Interest in the Common Man: William Wordsworth was one of
the first poets to embrace the concept of writing that could be read,
enjoyed, and understood by anyone. He eschewed overly stylized
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language and references to classical works in favor of emotional
imagery conveyed in simple, elegant language,
5/ Idealization of Women: In works such as Poe’s The Raven, women
were always presented as idealized love interests, pure and beautiful,
but usually without anything else to offer. Ironically, the most notable
novels of the period were written by women (Jane Austen, Charlotte
Brontë, and Mary Shelley, for example), but had to be initially
published under male pseudonyms because of these attitudes. Much
Romantic literature is infused with the concept of women being perfect
innocent beings to be adored, mourned, and respected—but never
touched or relied upon.
6/ Personification and Pathetic Fallacy: Romantic literature’s
fixation on nature is characterized by the heavy use of both
personification and pathetic fallacy. Mary Shelley used these
techniques to great effect in Frankenstein:
Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gentle sky; and, when troubled by the
winds, their tumult is but as the play of a lively infant, when compared
to the roarings of the giant ocean.

The Romantic Sublime:

Sublime, in literary criticism, grandeur of thought, emotion, and


spirit that characterizes great literature. The source of the sublime
is seen in the moral, emotional, and imaginative depth of the writer and
its expression in the flare-up of genius that rules alone could not
produce.

The term sublime refers to art that has the ability to terrify or
overwhelm the viewer. Burke asserts that the feelings of the sublime
are triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty,
darkness or excessive light.

Romantic poets attempt to evoke in their readers a sense of the


sublime in part by elevating their language so that it is highly
emotional and in part by embracing the irrational. It is a meeting of
the subjective-internal (emotional) and the objective-external (natural
world) to create an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion
the mind is capable of feeling.

She Walks in Beauty


BY LORD BY RON (G E ORG E G ORDON)

She walks in beauty, like the night

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Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,


Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,


So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

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