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ROMANTICISM - Coggle Diagram
ROMANTICISM
What?
Romanticism was a cultural movement which developed in Europe in the first half of the 19th century in opposition to Enlightenment.
The word Romantic comes from 'romance', a French word related to some kind of literary compositions and it was used in a negative way at first.
When?
Usually the year 1798 is considered the one when Romanticism started because in this year Wordsworth and Coleridge, two important English authors, published the Lyrical Ballads, while the beginning of the Victorian Age in 1837 brings this movement to an end.
Europe
The development of the Romantic movement was different in each country.
It first arrived in France : where the principles of the French Revolution were of great relevance and was influenced by Rousseau, who believed that civilisation had been negative for men because it produced evil and corruption, and Madame de Staël, who wrote De l'Allemagne, in which she refused the principles of classic poetry.
In Germany Romanticism started with the Sturm und Drang and with journalism: Athenäum was the most important periodical of that time and it is considered the Manifesto of German Romanticism.
In Italy Giovanni Berchet wrote the Lettera semiseria which marked the beginning of this movement which was then embraced by important authors like Giacomo Leopardi.
General Features
Romanticism was a movement that had different features from country to country because of the different political and social situation, but some common features can be found.
According to the Romantics Imagination had a fundamental role in poetry: it helped the poet to change the real world or escape from it.
Childhood and prehistory were seen as the two most important period of existence and life because only in those times men can be pure and uncorrupted.
The poets' relationships with nature were various but all of them considered it as their source of inspiration.
England
The historical events that influenced the development of Romanticism in England were the three revolutions: the American, the French and the Industrial one.
The English Romantic poets are usually divided into two generations.The poets of the First Generation (Wordsworth and Coleridge) used a much more simple language and style because they wanted to send a message to the readers. These poets were also close to the ideals of the French revolution in the first part of their lives.
The poets of the Second Generation (Byron, Shelley and Keats) experienced disillusionment from the political ideals of the revolutions and this aspect of their lives reflected in their poetry which was more complex and had more elevated themes. Because of their disappointment these poets refused every connection with the society of their time and they were always looking for a better world which they always tried to create in their works.
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Liberty Leading the People
(Delacroix)
The Raft of the Medusa (Gèricault)
The Kiss (Hayez)