Romantic Movement Lens

Graph

Tenets

Freedom for the individual
Rejection of restricting social conventions and political rule
Fight for rights of the common man
Emphasis on emotions and the imagination over reason nd logic
Free spontaneous action over controlled calculated behaviour
Valorisation of the wilderness
The "noble savage"
Revival of interest in folklore and legends
Using common language to educate the common man

Timeline

Publication of Lyrical Ballades - 1798 Death of Byron - 1824

Romanticism as an Aesthetic Philosophy

Derived from medieval concept of romance, which included a nostalgia for the past
Dominant aesthetic philosohphy in England and parts of Europe at the time
Spread across literature, painting, architecture and music - all were romantic in style and form
Often seen as a reaction to 17th century thoughts and ideas of the Neo-classical period (the Enlightenment)
Social responsibility
- Emerged as response to many events in England and Europe
- Intellectuals "declasse" (without class)
- Support by romantics such as Wordsworth for the French Revolution
- Valorisation of the rustic, concern over the plight of the urban poor
  - Notice urban, not rural. The Romantics believed the rural people to be connected to nature and thus live a fulfilling life
Cult of Nature
- Saw nature as restorative
- Pantheism - God in nature
- Nostalgia for rustic life
- Impact of industrial revolution on people's lives: living to the clock, not the sun and/or the seasons
- Nature as restorative to human spirit, more true, closer to the divine
- Wilderness valued over tamed countryside
Individualism
- Romantics challenged Neo-classicist notions of essential truths in nature and society
- Disagreed with mechanistic ideology of everyone and everything as a cog in the great clock of the world
- Society = artificial self, return to nature = simpler life and true individualism
- Valorisation of originality over retreatment of classical stories
- Child as special person with special perceptions and attributes
- French Revolution: liberte, equalite, fraternite

Neo-Classicism

Also known as the Enlightenment, a period of revived interest in Ancient Greek and Roman art
Reason, order, logic
Rationalism
Empiricism
Mechanical philosophy
Human dominion over nature
E.g squared gardens with orderly lines of trees
Essential truths in nature and society

The 17-18th Centuries: A time of great historical changethe new world - Context for Romanticism

Scientific and technological revolution
Industrial revolution, industrialisation
Agricultural revolution, urbanisation
Birth of mass society and mass communications
London became centre for trade from "the new world" and an intellectual and cultural centre: "A man who is tired of London is tired of life."
City/country, Culture/Nature opposition/ The country seen as unstimulating. Changed relations between man and nature.
Social inequities and inequalities, and increasing secularisation.
The French Revolution

Discussion

It has often been stated that we are all, to some degree, "post-romantics"

How true do you think this statement is?

Can you find any evidence in modern texts, or modern culture, of the persistence of Romantic ideas in relation to nature, art and the self (etc.)