Romanticism

1
Romanticism

• A Movement Across the Arts
• Adapted from www.huffenglish.com/powerpoints/Roma
  nticism.ppt

2
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

3
Imagination

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

4
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.

5
Idealism

• 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.

6
Inspiration

• The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an
  inspired creator rather than a technical
  master.
• Romanticism emphasized going with the moment, or
  being spontaneous, rather than being precise,
  controlled, or realistic.

7
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.

8
Origins

• Romanticism began to take root as a movement
  following the French Revolution.
• The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William
  Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1792 is
  considered the beginning of literary Romanticism.

9
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, such as chivalry and courtly love.
• Shakespeare came back into vogue.

10
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
Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and
Dying Typhoon Coming On, by Turner (1840)
The Death of Marat by David (1793)
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Literature

• In America, Romanticisms strongest impact was on
  literature.
• Writers explored supernatural and gothic themes.
  
• Writers wrote about nature as a place to escape,
  to reconnect with the primitive and Edenic,
  and/or to connect with God.

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Gothic?

• Setting pseudo-medieval, e.g. in a dark castle
  or abbey with secret passageways and hidden trap
  doors
• Themes often focused on the darker side of human
  nature betrayal, the desire for revenge,
  insanity, superstition, etc.
• Supernatural Elements ghosts and spirits
• Mood and Tone mysterious, dark, suspenseful,
  meant to arouse terror

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On Hawthorne and Y.G.B.

• Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem,
  Massachusetts many of his novels and stories are
  set in Puritan New England.
• Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown takes
  place in Salem in the late 1600s, around the
  time of the Salem witch trials.
• Hawthornes ancestor was a judge during the witch
  trials Hawthorne changed the spelling of his
  name to distance himself from this ancestor.

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Hawthorne and Y.G.B Continued

• Recurring themes in Hawthornes work
• the isolation and alienation of the individual
• the workings of the inner mind, including
  psychological repression and madness
• sin and guilt as universal
• societys (especially Puritan societys)
  restrictions on sexual and religious freedom
• the dangers of the mob mentality
• dysfunctional family and other relationships

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Consider and Discuss

• Young Goodman Brown is in some ways, but not
  all, a typical example of the Romantic
  movement. Which elements in the text are
  typical of Romanticism (Recall the 5 Is and
  other features of Romantic art and thinking)?
  Which do not seem to fit with the Romantic
  movements ideals?
• Which themes in Young Goodman Brown are typical
  of Hawthornes work in particular (Recall the
  list of themes)?
• This story makes several implicit arguments.
  What is Hawthorne arguing about Puritan society?
  About the plight of the individual? About human
  nature?