Romanticism Powerpoint
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Transcript of Romanticism Powerpoint
RomanticismRestoration Period 1660-1700Romantic Period 1700-1837
Beginning and End• Inclusive of work between 1770-1870:
this permits work by Blake and Burns as well as the influence of Rousseau’s writings
• “Officially” starts in 1798 when Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads and when German poet Novalis put together Hymns to the Night (Hymnen and Die Nacht)
• “Officially” ends in 1832 around the time of Sir Walter Scott’s and Goethe’s death
Major Precepts of Romanticism• Imagination• Nature• Symbolism & Myth• Emotions & the Self• The Romantic Hero• Paradoxical Combinations• Criticism of Bourgeoisie and the
Philistine• Self-Consciousness & The Individual• Relativism
Imagination
• Contrast to the supremacy of reason and the Enlightenment
• The creative mind is the human equivalent of the creative powers of a deity
• Allows humans to constitute reality (we not only perceive the world around us but we, in part, create it)
• Focus on “intellectual intuition” and reconciliation of differences and opposites
Nature
• Nature itself was viewed as a work of art, created by a divine imagination
• Nature was viewed as “organic”• Romantic nature poetry is essentially a
poetry of meditation and reflection• Strong shift away from the
industrialization and globalization of the world
• Put the myth back into nature—returned God to mystical and supernatural state
Symbolism & Myth
• Symbols were the human aesthetic correlatives of nature’s representative language
• Symbolism was valued over allegory because there could be several responses to a symbol
• Used symbolism and myth to express the “Inexpressible” or the infinite through the use of an organic perception
Emotions & The Self
• Greater importance on intuition, instincts, and feelings
• Wordsworth describes poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
• Shift in literary criticism from mimetic to expressive. Art does not reflect nature, but it helps to better understand it
• The artist has become the hero
The Romantic Hero• The hero-artist: free experimentation over
rules of genre, composition, and decorum– Artist is an “inspired” creator rather than a
technical “maker”– Lauded Shakespeare as a model writer, but
rejected the rules that he followed/created
• The heaven-storming hero: striving for the unattainable even though it is often beyond what is permitted
• Boldness is now preferred: each person must create a system by which to live—individualism rather than absolutes
Paradoxical Combinations• Realms of existence prior to the
conceptions of “objective” reason were explored.
• The merger of everyday and exotic, nature and supernatural, appeared in combinations– Beautiful soul and ugly body: Hugo’s
Hunchback of Notre Dame and Shelley’s Frankenstein
Criticism of Bourgeoisie and the Philistine
• The rich aristocrat praising the rural life even though their money came from urban industry or occupations; Romance poets funded by rich aristocrats–Wordsworth’s father was an attorney for an
Earl–Blake was gifted tuition to the Royal Academy–Lord Byron inherited his wealth from several
family members• “Philistine” is a person who does not value or
know anything about Art• “Bourgeoisie” is a person of the upper class—
non-working class
Self-Consciousness and Individualism
• Opening statement of Rousseau's Confessions, first published in 1781—
"I am not made like anyone I have seen; I dare believe that I am not made like anyone in existence. If I am not superior, at least I am different.”
•“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Romantic writer)
Relativism• Conflict to the Enlightenment: there
does not need to be one truth:– The concept that points of view have no
absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration
• The heart has reasons that Reason is not equipped to understand. The heart was a source of knowledge -- the location of ideas "felt" as sensations rather than thoughts.
Romanticism in Music
• Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms: works pushed the standards of composition by including sorrowful moods, melodramatic climaxes, and extreme crescendos
• Beethoven’s “Eroica” (Italian for “heroic”) is an example of Romantic composition