Romanticism
The Definition of Romanticism
- • Romanticism was a major movement in the early nineteenth century. Although it was more an attitude towards life than it was a philosophy, it did have some defining characteristics.
- • Romanticism was almost a counterpoint to the ideals of the Enlightenment, which were then associated with liberalism and the middle class.
- • Romanticism could coexist w/other political philosophies, for example nationalism or socialism.
- • Actually, conservatives and radicals both drew on romantic philosophy, for conservatives claimed that stability was only possible through tradition and respect of customs while radicals claimed that a new era required the shattering of old institutions just as artistic change required new creativity.
- • Romanticism was also an artistic movement.
Romanticism (Rousseau and French Revolution) vs. Liberalism (Enlightenment)
- • Romanticism was a movement that idealized the countryside. Liberalism thrived in the cities.
- • Romanticism emphasized emotion, the heart, and poetry (often illogical and emotional). Liberalism emphasized reason, the mind, and prose (logical and unemotional).
- • Romanticism stressed intuition, and the concept of genius (often misunderstood). Liberalism stressed reason and scholarship (you must study and work to improve yourself).
- • Romanticism viewed nature as untamable, irrational, and out of control. They felt that nature controlled humans, not visa versa. Liberalism felt nature could be controlled, and, most importantly, understood through mathematical laws – it stressed progress.
- • Romanticism stressed the uniqueness of the individual (sometime nations nationalists). Liberalism stressed the fact that humans control own destiny, that perfection can be reached through education, progress and science and that there are universal human laws.
- • Romanticism idealized the Middle Ages (knights in shining armor). Liberalism despised it.
Romantic Philosophy and Literature
- Although romantic thought flourished with the revival of religion, the increased interest in history and rising nationalism, it was mainly philosophical.
- Romantic thinkers wrote about metaphysics, aesthetics, the philosophy of nature, and even (in Germany and Scandinavia) a romantic philosophy of science.
- Romantics tended to express themselves through poetry, aphorisms, and autobiographical accounts.
- Friedrich Schiegel was a very influential romantic thinker from Germany.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English romantic poet who wrote the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tale of guilt, redemption, and the supernatural.
- William Wordsworth another romantic poet whose poems contrasted the beauty of nature with urban corruption and denounced the materialism of his age.
- In general, novelists and dramatists began to set their tales in the past, favor vivid description and attempt to describe the larger picture of human existence (like Shakespeare and Cervantes).
Romantic Art and Music
- In art, the romantic painters began to emphasize color over line, scenes of nature (especially wild nature), exotic scenes, movement, action, dark backgrounds, turmoil, and an appeal to emotion.
- The romantic style was almost the opposite of the last great style, neoclassicism.
- Romantic portraits (which were out anyhow) were blurry and tried to show inner personality.
- Big guys were Eugène Delacroix (French painter who did Greece Expiring and Liberty Leading the People), Francisco Goya (Spanish painter) and J.M.W. Turner (English painter who did The Slave Ship).
- At the same time a competing school of painting, realism, emphasized ordinary, common people and scenes from everyday life.
- Neoclassicism was not completely gone either, for Délacroix’s artistic enemy was Jean-Auguste Dominic Ingres (a student of David who emphasized detail, crisp focus and blended neoclassicism with romantic influence).
- In music romantic composers appealed directly to the heart, stressing melodies and using freer harmonies. Big romantic composers were Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.
