ROMANTICISM 1 AS AN INTELLECTUAL TREND OF THE 19TH CENTURY In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws

and customs, in spite of things silently gone out of mind and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time. The objects of the Poets thoughts are everywhere; though the eyes and senses of man are, it is true, his favourite guides, yet he will follow wheresoever he can find an atmosphere of sensation in which to move his wings. Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge it is as immortal as the heart of man.! "illiam "ordsworth, Preface to #$yrical %allads!

By the end of the 18th century, the ideals of the Enlightenment no longer inspired the imagination of the intellectuals of Europe. Men of letters and artists, too, began to doubt the essential tenets of the Enlightenment (mainly, the primacy of reason and logic); they began to uestion !hether the rationality, the scientific approach and the logical thought of the Enlightenment !ere really good to humanity. "his s#epticism regarding the ideals of the Enlightenment e$pressed itself mainly in the intellectual trend of Romanticism, i.e. the most significant de%elopment of the late 18 th and early 1&th centuries in philosophy, literature and art. 'riginally, the term &omanticism referred to the characteristics of romances, a fact that carried some!hat pe(orati%e connotations. But in the 18 th century the term came to designate a new kind of artistic trend !hich appeared as a reaction against the pre%ious )ge of the Enlightenment and its *lassical orientation. "he con%enient set of terminal dates for the +omantic period are inherited from the spheres of English and ,erman literature- the beginning of +omanticism is generally considered to ha%e occurred in 1798, the year of the first edition of $yrical %allads by .illiam .ords!orth and /amuel "aylor *oleridge, and the ending in 1832, the year !hich mar#ed the deaths of both /ir .alter /cott (100111823) and 4ohann .olfgang %on ,oethe (105&11823). 6o!e%er, as an international mo%ement affecting art in general, +omanticism began at least in the 1770s and continued !ell into the second half of the nineteenth century. "he early +omantic period thus coincided !ith !hat is often called the age of revolutions71 including the )merican (1776)3 and the 8rench (1789)2 re%olutions 1 an age of uphea%als in political, economic, and social traditions, the age !hich !itnessed the initial transformations of the 9ndustrial +e%olution5. ) re%olutionary energy !as also at the core of +omanticism, !hich set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the %ery !ay the human beings percei%ed the !orld. .ith its emphasis on imagination and emotion, +omanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment !ith the Enlightenment %alues of reason and order in the aftermath of the 8rench +e%olution of 108&. +omanticism uestioned the primacy of +eason, 'rder and /cience; instead, it emphasi:ed the sub(ecti%e, the imaginati%e, the
1

&omanticism has %ery little to do !ith things popularly thought of as romantic. +ather, it is to be thought of as an international artistic and philosophical mo%ement that redefined the fundamental !ays in !hich people in .estern cultures thought about themsel%es and about their !orld. Etymologically, romanticism comes from the 8rench roman'romaunt ( literary work based on imagination 3 ) most significant e%ent during the last half of the 18th century in !hich thirteen colonies in ;orth )merica (oined together to brea# free from the British Empire, combining to become the <nited /tates of )merica. 2 The )rench &evolution (1080110&&) !as a political e%ent !hose significance cannot and should not be confined to the 8rench area, since it !as important to the entire Europe by mar#ing the beginning of the democrati:ation of the continent. 9n 8rance, the #ing !as e$ecuted and the rule !as ta#en o%er by a re%olutionary go%ernment !hich e%entually instituted the +eign of "error. 9n 18=5, ;apoleon Bonaparte became the emperor of 8rance. 5 ) period from the 18th to the 1&th century !here ma(or changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. 9t began in Britain, then subse uently spread throughout the !orld.

personal, the emotional and the spontaneous. 9t stood for the precedence of emotion o%er reason, and senses o%er intellect. Romantic writers (Romanticism) 1 "he +omantics attac#ed the Enlightenment because it bloc#ed the free play of the emotions and creati%ity. >i#e one of their intellectual fathers, 4ean 4ac ues +ousseau (10131 1008), the +omantics intended to reclaim human freedom. 6abits, %alues, rules and standards imposed by a ci%ili:ation grounded in reason and reason had to be abandoned. *an is born free and everywhere he is in chains,7 +ousseau had !ritten. 1 the +omantics sa! di%ersity and uni ueness. "hat is, those traits !hich set one man apart from another, and traits !hich set one nation apart from another. 1 Motto- ?are to be@ (Esse aude@) 1 "he +omantics !ere rebels and passionate about their sub(ecti%ism, about their tendency to!ard introspection. Philosophes (Enlightenment) 1 "he philosophes !ere too ob(ecti%e; they chose to see human nature as something uniform and attac#ed the *hurch because it put boundaries on human reason.

1 "he philosophes sa! man in common, that is, as creatures endo!ed !ith +eason; 1 Motto- ?are to #no!@ (/apere aude@) 1 "he philosophes !ere con%entional and ob(ecti%e.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM Imp !"#$%& ' &m "( $s, '&&)($*s <nli#e the )ge of the Enlightenment, !hich focused on rationality and intellect, +omanticism placed human emotions, feelings, instinct and intuition abo%e e%erything else; they belie%ed that #no!ledge is gained through intuition rather than deduction. "his is best summed up by .ords!orth !ho stated that all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.7 ($yrical %allads) C&)&+!#"( $ ' $#",!& +omantic !riters emphasi:ed the a!e of nature in art and language and the e$perience of sublimity through a connection !ith nature; one of the main characteristics of +omantic poetry is the beauty of nature found in the country life, mainly because the 9ndustrial re%olution had detached man from the peaceful country life and had led him to!ards the city life, transforming his natural order. "he perspecti%es !ith regard to nature %aried considerably A e.g. nature as a healing po!er or as a refuge from the artificial constructs of ci%ili:ation. Imp !"#$%& ' (m#*($#"( $ #$- -!&#ms Ele%ating imagination to a position of supreme faculty of the mind, the +omantics legitimi:ed it as a critical authority. "his contrasted !ith the traditional arguments for the supremacy of reason. "he +omantics tended to define and to present the imagination as our ultimate shaping7 or creati%e po!er, the appro$imate human e ui%alent of the creati%e po!ers of nature or e%en deity. 9t is dynamic, an acti%e, rather than passi%e po!er, endo!ed !ith many functions. 9magination, in their %ie!, !as the primary faculty for creating all art. C&)&+!#"( $ ' ".& I$-(/(-,#) "he +omantics often ele%ated the achie%ements of the misunderstood, heroic indi%idual outcast. "hey asserted the importance of the indi%idual, the uni ue, e%en the eccentric. N#"( $#)(sm "he +omantics borro!ed hea%ily from the fol#lore and the popular art of their o!n country, thus de%eloping a sense of ;ationalism !hich !as reflected in their !or#s. E0 "(%(sm )long !ith ;ationalism, the +omantics de%eloped the lo%e of the e$otic. 6ence, in many of the literary as !ell as artistic !or#s of that period, the far off and mysterious locations !ere depicted. M#1 ! 2!("(s. R m#$"(% 3 &"s

9n British literature, +omanticism !as de%eloped by t!o generations of poets14 1798 5 18167 T.& L#8& 3 &"s7 B .ords!orth, .illiam (100=118C=) B *oleridge, /amuel "aylor (100311825) 24 /outhey, +obert (100511852) 1816 5 18327

,eorge ,ordon Byron (108811835) B Deats, 4ohn (10&C11831) B /helley, Eercy Bysshe (10&311833) R m#$"(% p &"s Fictor 6ugo (8rench); .alt .hitman ()merican); Edgar )llan Eoe ()merican); 8redrich /chiller and 4ohann .olfgang %on ,oethe (,erman); Mihai Eminescu (+omanian) R m#$"(%(sm 5 MANIFESTO "he Preface to $yrical %allads, published by .. .ords!orth and /. ". *oleridge (first edition, 10&8; second edition, 18==) %iographia $itteraria, published by /. ". *oleridge in 1810.

Preface to $yrical %allads ( !ritten by .ords!orth A promoted ideas about3OETRY- 1 all good poetry7 is defined as a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling7, !hose ob(ecti%e is that of producing both emotion and pleasure (as opposed to science, !hose ob(ecti%e is that of producing truth) 1 is the result of a creati%e process (the poet should start from a past emotional e$perience, !hich should be reli%ed in order to launch his creati%e po!ers.) "he origin of poetry- emotions recollected in tran+uility7. 1 interest in the common people, in the people at the country (and, conse uently, in their language) A to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination7. 3OET7 characteristics7 5 greater sensiti%ity 1 #no!ledge of human nature 1 magic po!er of imagination 1 lac#ing in technical abilities 1 empathical abilities (abilities to enter into the li%es of his characters and to translate passions into !ords). 1 god1li#e creator THEMES7 5 nature (!ild scenery) 5 5 5 5 5 lo%e 6istoryGheroic history /olitude /upernatural introspection

MOOD7 5 melancholy ESCA3ISM7 the tendency to escape from present time to past time, from closed spaces to natural surroundings, into the poetHs !orld of inner thoughts and feelings. III MAIN IDEAS +omanticism as an artistic trend of the end of the 18 th and the beginning of the 1& th century !as associated !ith a triumph of emotion o%er reason and imagination o%er intellect; it !as a reaction against the supremacy of reason and logic as promoted by the )ge of Enlightenment and proposed in e$change the follo!ing featuresImportance of emotion ,elebration of nature Importance of imagination Individualism -n interest in the historical past; nationalism 1 - tendency to escape from society; e.oticism The &omantic hero/ rejecting established norms and conventions, rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own e.istence. +omantics set themsel%es in opposition to the order and rationality of classical and neoclassical (specific to the Enlightenment) artistic precepts to embrace freedom and re%olution in their art and politics.