The Romantic Period

It is widely recognized that, among all literary periods, Romanticism is the one that generally defies any one definition because of its complexity and multiplicity. As a matter of fact, Romanticism can be viewed as a label which literary critics conveniently used at a later time to describe the new intellectual and artistic climate that had developed between the end of the 18th century and the first part of the following one. In addition, Romanticism was a European movement which involved and affected other countries, such as Germany, Italy and France, each of which added to it in its own specific way.

Silence (1799), by Henry Fuseli

One way to introduce the Romantic period is to trace the history of the word romantic and highlight a few of the many meanings and definitions which have been attached to it. Interestingly enough, it was in England that the term was first introduced around the mid-17th century to characterize the unreality and improbability of the events told by old romances and chivalrous tales as well as to underline the exaggeration of the feelings exhibited. The term was used in a derogatory way during the Augustan Age which championed order, balance and

ctness.

corre Gradually, however, “romantic” took on a more positive meaning again, thus mirroring the change in sensibility which took place around the mid-18th century when the neoclassical literary values and ideals were called into question by the works of Thomas Gray or Edward Young who, in this sense, can be considered pre-Romantics. “Romantic” started being used to connote or describe states of mind associated with the expression of feelings and emotions, in particular those aroused by the contemplation of natural landscape and shaded with melancholy and sadness.

At this time and with this connotation, the word was introduced, in its translated forms, into France and Germany and this fact is considered one of the most important English contributions to the history of European thought. Among the many writers who variedly used this word, it is worth mentioning Jean Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Schlegel. Rousseau used “romantique” in a famous passage of his Reveries du promeneur solitaire (1776-1778) to describe the shores of a lake he was walking by. Schlegel, who is reckoned to have introduced the term “romantisch” into the context of literary criticism, used it in his works on literature and the creative process especially in connection with what is emotional and imaginative. It is worth noting that, in England, the authors who are commonly regarded as Romantic, such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, never used this word to define the qualities of their own poetry.

The romantic awakening was eventually the culmination of an intense and lively intellectual and philosophical debate which had developed throughout Europe during the latter part of the 18th century and which in England had been anticipated by the so called Age on Sensibility. In this context, it is worth mentioning the works of the French philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) as well as the German literary movement Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress).

In Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité (1775), an investigation into the origins of inequality among men, Rousseau contends that society and civilized behaviour are bad while nature and natural behaviour are good. From this opposition originaties his idealized notion of the “noble savage”, who is good, free and happy because in contact with nature, and his praise of simple life and its uncorrupted joys. Thus, Rousseau advocates a return to nature which finds an eloquent exposition in several of his works, in particular Reveries du promeneur solitaire, published posthumously in 1782. The emphasis on the communion between nature and the individual's ’tate of mind is here treated in a personal, subjective way through spontaneous association of images and ideas and the use of autobiographical material.

In the play Sturm und Drang, 1774, Friedrich Maximiliam Klinger gives violent expression to emotions and heralds individual expression and subjectivity over the natural order of rationality.

Rousseau’s new approach to nature greatly influenced the young German writers grouped under the Sturm und Drang after the title of a play written by one of its members. It was formed in Strasbourg in 1770 and was active for some ten years.

65

The inspiring forces behind it were the German writer and dramatist Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) and Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), writer and philosopher. Besides exalting nature and its spontaneity against the constraints imposed by the use of reason, the Sturm und Drang writers emphasized the uniqueness and essential freedom of the individual and stressed his creative powers. In their conception, which was also influenced by Young’s conjectures on Original Composition, these features were at their best embodied in the figure of the genius, that is the creative artist. It is also important to acknowledge the influence of the German idealism which is generally considered the philosophical background of Romanticism. It centered around the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854). Each of them, in his own peculiar way, voiced the aspiration towards the Absolute or the infinite, beyond the limits imposed by reason and the certainties it apparently fostered. They recognized a fundamental creative, dynamic spiritual force at work in the world which moved incessantly towards its own realization. Fichte called it the Thinking Self or Ego, Schelling the Absolute and Hegel the Ideal. Notably, Schelling maintained that the best manifestation of the Absolute was to be found in art and that the artistic experience was the only way for man to come close to the Absolute.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, written by J.W. Goethe in 1774 was a major influence on the Romantic literature that followed.

Within this web of interweaving and overlapping influences, romantic sensibility spread all over Europe.

In Germany, where it had its philosophical roots, Romanticism developed out of the enthusiasm of the Sturm und Drang and stressed the predominance of sensibility and transcendent discernment over any rational experience. The figure of the artist remained central in his being able to fuse the rational and irrational aspects of the mind. In France, notwithstanding Rousseau’s fundamental influence, the romantic

movement developed rather late due to the persistence of a neoclassical tradition which had sanctioned France’s cultural dominance since the 17th century. Oddly enough, despite the impact of the French Revolution on the minds of the so-called romantic intellectuals, France’s political history since 1789 somewhat obstructed the literary debate. As a result, a real romantic movement became evident in France as late as the 1820s by mostly emphasizing freedom from literary conventions and the role of passion and spontaneity.

Ariel, by H. Fuseli

In Italy too the romantic movement emerged relatively late, mainly because Italian literature was deeply rooted in the classicist tradition and tended to imitate the classics. In addition, the sense of history, the concept of nation and the emphasis on freedom were impressed upon the minds of the Italian intellectuals who, politically liberals, longed and strived for the unification of Italy: for them literature, or art in general, was a means towards the political education of the Italian people and, as such, was to convey high moral, social and political values. In England the genre dominated by Romanticism was poetry. The English

romantic poets are conventionally divided into two generations. The poets of the first generation (which includes includes William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge) were united in their appreciation of and enthusiasm for the French Revolution. In addition, they regarded their task as poet as that of arousing the individual’s consciousness and providing a deeper, purified vision of life. They confronted their contemporary society but never opposed it openly.

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1823), is considered to be one of Italy’s greatest poets and thinkers. The poets of the second generation (which comprises George Gordon Byron,

Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats) all had a brief through intense life. Lord Byron and Shelley in particular travelled extensively all over Europe. Travelling on the so called ‘grand tour’ was very fashionable during the romantic period and almost all romantic poets journeyed through Europe. However, while travelling continued to be considered a learning experience and an opportunity to expose oneself to a different cultural or intellectual climate, the poets of the second generation used it to further highlight their opposition to contemporary society, its conventions and rules.

These poets carried to an extreme their passionate intensity of feeling and imagination, their idea of freedom and rebellion, their determination to remain independent. In doing so, they detached themselves from the established order of things either by harshly contrasting it or contemplating it from the privileged though isolated position of the poet, and took refuge in an exclusive cult of the beautiful. Il bacio (1856), by

Francesco Hayez.

66

67

The Spirit of Romanticism

There were two events that left a permanent mark, not only in this period but also in the following: the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The French Revolution was hailed by many intellectuals as the overthrow of

tyranny, the beginning of a new era in human history. Liberty, equality, fraternity – the motto of the Revolution – spread throughout Europe and fired yound intellectuals and poets like Wordsworth, who cried: “Bliss was it in the dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!” In one of his most

famous poems, Lines Written in Early Spring, Wordsworth wrote: “And much it grieved my heart to think/ What man has made of man”. (i.e. has destroyed the capacity to share the harmony and joy of all natural creatures.

Behind this yearning for reform it is possible to detect the ideas of the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who set forth his theory on the equality of all individuals and advocated a society governed by the general will. In his rejection of civilization, that he saw as artificial and corrupting, he preached a return to a simple, natural life. This aspect of the thought of Rousseau leads ‘by contrast’ to the other important event which transformed the way of life: the Industrial Revolution. Before this change from an agricultural to an industrial nation, a large share of

English society was formed by small farmers who lived an independent life. The Industrial Revolution destroyed the rural family as an economic unit and transformed the working individual into an impersonal labour force. Those who had been independent farmers moved to the new industrial towns to become factory workers, thus leaving their villages, while the importance of agriculture declined. The intellectuals of the time deplored the abandonment of the country, the loss of contact with nature, and foresaw the evils connected with the mass society that was being born as well as the materialism and the greed that they already perceived in their contemporaries. Hence their wish to transcend the reality, their deep interest in nature, not as a beautiful scenery but as a spiritual influence; hence the emphasis on individualism and on solitude.

Economist Jeremy Bentham created his famous principle of ‘utility’: “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”

The excesses of the Jacobin dictatorship and France’s wars with the rest of Europe disappoined many supporters of the French Revolution, who passed to conservative positions. However, the necessity of reform was urgent and deeply felt. The working

classes were beginning to become conscious of their rights, and were demanding better living standards and the right to vote; the reforms were not welcomed by the government (the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed only after great resistance) and by a good share of public opinion, afraid of concession to what they called “Jacobin mobs”.

The ideological fervour of those years was the source of great pamphleteering

and debate. A very influential man who greatly appealed to the idealistic feelings of so many young intellectuals, was the radical and anarchic philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836), who condemned institutions, traditions, and even feeling like gratitude because they limit personal freedom. The industrial and commercial development saw the flourishing of economists

like John Stuart Mill and, Thomas Robert Malthus. The most influential thinker of the time was perhaps Jeremy Bentham, the father of Utilitarianism, who maintained that social action is right when it produces the greatest good for the greatest number. He had many followers, who pursued the successful policy of institutional reform which secured political continuity.

In L’enfant sauvage (1970), French director François Truffaut develops some of the anxieties of the Romantic period.

The period witnessed the beginning of the dichotomy which would mark all the 19th century: on the one hand the wealthy classes were determined to achieve more and more wealth and power, utilitarianism and free trade were accepte, many reforms were granted but in fact left things basically unchanged; on the other individual philanthropists and intellectuals challenged the order of things and sought to evade from a society that they felt alien.