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Romanticism - Coggle Diagram
Romanticism
KEY IDEAS
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-use of imagination: which allowed the poet to see beyond reality and to modify the external world as he wanted
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NEW CONCEPT
-SUBLIME: it was a feeling which amazed and scared at the same time (The Gothic novel was the main expression of this concept)
-NATURE: it was no longer an abstract concept, but it was a living being, opposed to reason and it was also an expressive language because natural images provided the poet symbols to express their personal feelings.
-THE FIGURE OF THE CHILD: there was a serious interest about the experience of childhood. The child was a pure figure, it was uncorrupted and very close to God.
-THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL: there was also an interest of the individual. The Romantics saw him in a solitary state (they exalted the atypical, the outcast, the rebel) because he had an instinctive knowledge and his behaviour was impulsive and uncorrupted by the rules of the society
The term "Romanticism" comes from the French word "romance" which means "tale". It is a cultural movement which developed in Europe during the 18th century and influenced different areas ( literature, art, philosophy). In England, it ended in 1830, when Victorian Age started (coronation of Queen Victoria)
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ROMANTIC POETRY
the new boring life style in the industrial cities, the new interest in everyday life and in melancholy, were reflected in a new type of poetry. So, in that period, a new generation of poets emerged: they were grouped in TWO GENERATIONS
2° GENERATION
JOHN KEATS
NATURE: it was a source of beauty and life. Like Wordsworth, Keats had a cult of nature, but he did not see an immanent God in it. Nature was another form of beauty which could be transformed in poetry through his imagination
THE ROLE OF THE POET: the poet had "negative capability"--> the capability to deny anything personal, to make the poetry universal. (Unlike wds, the poetry should be impersonal).
WHAT IS POETRY: Poetry was the only reason for life. It iwas a vision. It was the absolute and eternal.
GEORGE GORDON BYRON
NATURE: indipendet entity_ was not a source of joy. It was influenced by the sublime and gothic because these landscapes reflected the poet's feelings ( "Child Harold's pilgrimage" we can find "high mountains, in "Manfred" we can find a castle). It was also a refuge from human conflicts (in CHP he connected nature to freedom)
WHAT IS POETRY: it was the expression of excited passions. Byron introduced the "Byronic hero (an outsider who rejected conventions and with a great sensibility to nature and beauty)
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PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
NATURE: it was a way to express his ideal world, the world which he wanted ( in "Ode to the west wind he talked about a destructive power of wind which was a destroyer- shaked the natural element- and a preserver -because it spread the seeds for a new rebirth-).
THE ROLE OF THE POET: to help mankind to reach an ideal world where freedom and love replace tyranny.
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1° GENERATION
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
-NATURE: it was a source of consolation and joy. It was a world of sense perceptions which the poet re-produced with Memory(recollected in tranquillity). Man and nature were inseparable because man existed not outside the natural world but as an active partecipant in it ( es. “Daffodiels”).
-THE ROLE OF THE POET: it was “a man speaking to men” but he had a more refined sensibility and a more powerful imagination. So he was a TEACHER, he showed to men how to understand their feelings.
-WHAT IS POETRY: It was “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it took its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
-NATURE:not a moral guide or a source of joy. It had an essential role in poetic creativity because it provided natural symbols to the poet that reflected his emotions (“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”).
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-WHAT IS POETRY: his poetry was characterized by IMAGINATION. Primary imagination (emotions experienced by every human being); secondary imagination ( experienced by the poet_conscious). Fancy (was the way/language to express this world)