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Romanticism: literary backround - Coggle Diagram
Romanticism: literary backround
Romantic
Originally meant "typical of old and medieval romances"
It comes from the French "Romance", which in the Middle Ages denoted the new languages derived from Latin and the works written in those languages
It reffered to the artificial language and actions of Medieval romances (about chivarly and adventures)
In 18th century the term started to acquire a slightly different meaning, including by "markes by feeling" rather than rationalism; it also came to be associated with the ideas of melancholy and loneliness
1801
: pubblication of the
Preface to the lyrical ballads
by William Wordsworth, which is considered the Manifesto of English Romanticism
Preromantic trends
In the last three decades of the 18th century poets began to express their
dissatisfation with the values of Classicism
and rejected the idea that Reason was the leading faculty of man's intellect
The poets who gave voice to this
anti-classical
reaction
are called
pre-Romantics
because their works anticipated some of the features of Romanticism
Features
Use of
Classical forms to express Romantic themes
The idea that
nature is the right and ideal state of man in contrast with civilization
, whose disruptive power can harm the fragile equilibrium of natural forces
The exaltation of primitive life in contrast with the dehumanising effects of progress
The tendency to use a
meditative and often melancholy tone
The
rediscovery of the Middle Ages
and of its literature as a charming and mysterious period in which unlearned geniuses composed their best works
The
treatment of unusual themes
such as "the
exotic
", "the
strange
", "the
sublime
", which reflect a new idea of beauty in contrast with the rational beauty of Neoclassicism
A certain
fascination with death, graveyards and ruins
"ossianic Style"
Kind of poetry characterised by melancholy, paganism, heroism and the representation of the primitive forces of Nature
Sublime
: Burke in
A Philosophical Enquiry into the origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
(1757), distinguishes the "sublime" from Classical "beauty" and defines it as a
mix of intense feelings caused by the view of immense natural phenomena
, such as a storm or an abyss
According to Burke, Nature is revalued as a source of powerful feelings and pure knowledge, in contrast with the dehumanising effects of the Industrial Revolution and with the triumph of "reason"
Romanticism was a complex cultural and literary phenomenon in Europe and was a reaction against the triumph of the Enlightment and Neoclassicism
European Romantic literature re-evaluated the role of imagination and nature in the process of artistic creation and gave voice to a growing interest in emotions, feelings, the irrational and the supernatural
Two generations of Romantic poets
First generation
(1760-1801): is characterised by growing anti-classical tendences and by emerging pre-Romantic trends (Wordsworth, Coleridge)
Second generation
(1801-1837): Romantic Age (Keats, Shelley)