Romanticism

1. Romanticism A very brief survey

2. What is Romanticism? • Romanticism is an artistic, philosophical, and literary movement which originated in the late 18th century in Europe and lasted until approximately 1937, the year that Queen Victoria ascended to the British throne. In the United States, the Romantic Movement lasted until approximately the end of the Civil War although we certainly embrace many of the Romantic tenets today.

3. Romanticism was, in part, a reaction to the excesses of the Enlightenment era, during which logic and reason were considered the pinnacle of human abilities, and scientific discoveries opened the way for the Industrial Revolution.

4. While the Industrial Revolution brought untold conveniences and wealth to many people, it also brought pollution, overcrowding in cities, and great cultural change.

5. Difficult aspects of the Industrial Revolution: • Dehumanization • Value of technology over humanity Poverty and pollution in cities • Mass production takes the place of individual craftsmanship

6. London neighborhood, circa 1830

8. The Romantics: • * sought to reassert the importance of nature over technology, and believed that nature was the place to find true divinity. • *valued intuition and feelings over logic and imagination over reason, • *believed that ultimate truth could be found not through the process of reason, but through an individual’s, (especially an artist’s), emotional life, • *celebrated the individual over the social order, and • *believed that civilization was often a corrupting influence.

9. Romantic artists considered self-analysis to be especially constructive. They highly valued the exploration of the inner self; and they brought it into literature.

10. Romantic writers and artists frequently perceived themselves as at once sensitive and unappreciated. The intensity of personal self-assessment and the pursuit of the spiritual or other mystical/psychological ideas created a sense of alienation from commercial society, often expressed through literature, painting, and music.

11. Gothic Connection • Many romantics also felt attracted to the Gothic and the grotesque. Gothic literature is characterized by a mood of decay, action that is dramatic and generally violent, and loves that are destructively passionate, with grandiose yet gloomy settings. • Gothic/romantic literature often involves the grotesque, bizarre, and unnatural. To the romantics, the grotesque or gothic represented a freedom of spirit, mystery, and imagination.

12. Grotesque/gothic images

13. A good example of the gothic in romantic literature is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A SENSITIVE monster created by a SENSITIVE young scientist symbolizes technology run amok.

14. Two of the biggest names in Romantic literature: (England) William Wordsworth “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” “ Samuel Taylor Coleridge • “You stood before me like a thought…”

15. England, continued • Percy Bysshe Shelley • “The awful shadow of some unseen Power • Floats though unseen amongst us,… • John Keats, (died young of tuberculosis) • “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter;…”

16. AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

17. “Growing from the rhetoric of salvation, guilt, and providential visions of Puritanism, the wilderness reaches of this continent, and the fiery rhetoric of freedom and equality, the American brand of Romanticism developed its own character.” Ann Woodlief

18. Glory years: 1850-1855Why?? • a. Independence had been established, there was time now for literature and art. • b. There were American publishers, and readers with leisure time, including many women. • c. Religion: stern dogmas of Calvinism, Puritanism replaced by more rationalistic Unitarianism; however people were searching for satisfaction of deep spiritual yearnings; Deism and Unitarianism not enough.

19. More “Why??” • d. Politics: 18th century left heritage of optimism about man’s possibilities and perfectability. Democratic ideals asserted value of individuals, (white male individuals, that is). • e. Clash of egalitarian ideals with reality, (primarily slavery, also Indian relocation, and women’s position) enabled writers to see very dark, hypocritical side of fragmented society.

20. A little more “why” • f. Nature: Writers aware of “wild” aspects of nature, and were aware that this wild side was becoming lost as the physical frontiers were being conquered in this time of “Manifest Destiny.”

21. Washington Irving (1789-1851) • First famous American writer, first American to actually make a living as a writer • Wrote short stories, travel books, satires • Legend of Sleepy Hollow: terrified generations of children • Rip Van Winkle: created success from failure: first anti-hero • “Devil and Tom Walker:” an encounter-with-the-devil tale

22. Herman Melville • (1819-1891) • Ranked as one of America’s top novelists, but recognized by few in his own time • Moby Dick: • Didn’t sell, only his friend N.H. liked it, not reprinted for 60 years. • Now considered America’s greatest prose epic

23. Walt Whitman • (1819-1892) • Rejected conventional themes, forms, subjects • Used long lines to capture the rhythm of natural speech, free verse, everyday vocabulary • “Song of Myself” • “I hear America Singing” • “O Captain My Captain” • Leaves of Grass: published 1855

24. “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”Walt Whitman • When I heard the learn’d astronomer, • When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, • When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, • When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much • applause in the lecture-room, • How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, • Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, • In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, • Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

25. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)(Mrs. Kurnick’s B.F.) • The leader of the “Transcendentalists” • His writings helped established the philosophy of individualism, an idea deeply embedded in American culture. • “There is a soul at the center of nature, and over the will of every man, so that none of us can wrong the universe.” • “Spiritual Laws” - essay

26. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864 • Wrote about sin and guilt; consequences of pride, selfishness, etc. • Ancestor was Judge “Hathorne” at the Salem Witch trials. • The Scarlet Letter • Short Stories: • “The Minister’s Black Veil” • “Young Goodman Brown”

27. Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) • Lousy childhood, substance abuse issues • Created modern short story and detective story • Gothic • Didn’t believe that a long poem had to teach a lesson. • Inspired future detective/horror stories, Stephen King, etc.

28. American Romantic Artists

29. Asher Durand

30. John Quidor, (“Headless Horseman”)

31. Emerson the dog

32. Painting from the Romantic Period:

36. Composers of the Romantic Era: • Ludwig Von Beethoven Germany • Richard Wagner Germany • Frederic Chopin Poland/France • Felix Mendelssohn Germany