romanticism
TRANSCRIPT
Romanticism
NatureAnd
Eternal
DEFINITION Contrary to what
you may think, the term Romanticism is not just about romantic love (although love is sometimes the subject of romantic art).
Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s
ImaginationIntuitionIdealismInspirationIndividuality
IMAGINATIONImagination 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.
THE ROLE OF IMAGINATION As the poet Wordsworth
would suggest, humans not only perceive and experience the world
around them; they also, in part, create it. The
imagination unites reason and feeling, enabling humans to reconcile differences and opposites—this reconciliation is a central ideal for
Romantics. Finally, the imagination enables humans to “read “
nature as a system of symbols.
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.”
IDEALISMIdealism is the concept
that we can make the world a better place.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.
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.”
INDIVIDUALITY Romantics celebrated
the individual. During this time period,
Women’s 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…”
IDEALIZATION OF NATURE Embracing the uncivilized,
the wild, the pre-civilized. Rousseau: “Man is born free
and everywhere he is in chains.” In other words, civilization is in part the cause of our corruption.
The “noble savage,” and James Fennimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking novels, I.e. The Last of the Mohicans.
BUT THERE WERE 2 VIEWS OF NATURE The first viewed nature as peaceful, calm, nurturing, a source for spiritual renewal.
JOHN CONSTABLE: THE HAY WAIN
BUT NATURE COULD ALSO BE FRIGHTENING IN
ITS POWER, AND CAUSE A DIZZYING SENSE OF
AWE AND WONDER.
J.M.W. TURNER: AVALANCHE
EDMUND BURKE DEFINED THESE TWO VIEWS OF
NATURE AS:
• The beautifuland
• The sublime
NATURE
CELEBRATION OF NATURE Nature often presented as a work of art
from the divine imagination Nature as a healing power Nature as a refuge from civilization Nature viewed as “organic,” (alive)
rather than “mechanical” or “rationalist”
Nature viewed as a source of refreshment and meditation
SYMBOLISM AND MYTH
Valued as the human means for imitating nature in art
Could simultaneously suggest many things in a creative way
Based on a desire to “express the inexpressible” through the resources of language
THE ROMANTIC HERO As the Romantic
writers show us, our heroes were not always cowboys:
1. The hero as artist 2. The hero striving
beyond the moral restrictions of society
3. The hero who reappears from the ancient classics
THE EVERYDAY AND THE EXOTIC Romantic writers
embraced everyday realism (poetry of Wordsworth)
Also sought the folk legends of the past
Promoted exotic ideas suggested by technology and the imagination (a beautiful soul in an ugly body, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
THE ROMANTIC ARTIST IN SOCIETY The Romantics were
often ambivalent toward the “outside” world. On the one hand, they were socially and politically passionate—involved in worthy causes and social issues. On the other hand, they isolated themselves from the public.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Today a number of literary theorist have called into two major romantic perceptions:
1. That the literary text is a separate, individuated, living organism.
2. That the artist is fiercely independent genius who creates original works of art
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