1. A Movement Across the Arts
Romanticism
A Movement Across the Arts

2. Introducing the Romantic Era:1798-1832
Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix (1830)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John William Waterhouse (1893)

3. Enlightenment vs. Romanticism
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS
SOCIAL CONCERNS
CLASSICISM & RATIONALISM scientific observation of the outer world; logic classical Greek and Roman literature pragmatic interested in science, technology concerned with general, universal experiences believed in following standards and traditions felt optimistic about the present emphasized moderation and self- restraint appreciated elegance, refinement valued stability and harmony favored a social hierarchy interested in maintaining aristocracy concerned with society as a whole believed nature should be controlled by humans
ROMANTICISM
examination of inner feelings, emotions; imagination
literature of the Middle Ages
idealistic
interested in the mysterious & supernatural
concerned with the particular
sought to develop new forms of expressions
romanticized the past
tended towards excess and spontaneity
appreciated folk traditions
desired radical change
favored democracy
concerned with common people
concerned with the individual
felt that nature should be untamed
Adapted from chart in Prentice Hall Literature: The English Tradition (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1991): 631.

4. The Enlightenment, while an era of great scientific and industrial progress, was unable to address the social, political, and emotional stressors seething under the surface. Revolution brewed and then finally exploded in France. New modes of expression blossomed. A new respect and love for the common man, for the individual, took root… The vanguard for this new era consisted of poets, each unique, all dedicated to the ideals of a new age…

5. The Romantic Era “First Generation” “Second Generation”
William Blake ( )
Painter, Poet, Visionary
“The Garden of Love” and “The Tyger”
William Wordsworth ( )
“Father” of Romantic Poetry
The Prelude and “Tintern Abbey”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( )
Poet of the Imagination
“Kubla Khan” and Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“First Generation”
“Second Generation”
George Gordon, Lord Byron ( )
Scoundrel, Womanizer, Poet
“She Walks in Beauty” and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( )
Romantic Revolutionary
“Ode to the West Wind” and “Ozymandias”
John Keats ( )
“Greatest” Romantic Poet?
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

6. Romanticism refers to a movement in art, literature, and music during the 19th century.
Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s
Imagination
Intuition
Idealism
Inspiration
Individuality
Definition

7. Imagination Imagination was emphasized over “reason.”
This was a backlash against the rationalism characterized by the Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason.”
Imagination was considered necessary for creating all art.
British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”
Imagination

8. Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Rime of the Ancient Mariner

9. Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason.
Emotions were important in Romantic art.
British Romantic William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
Intuition

10. William Wordsworth – I Wander Lonely as a Cloud

11. Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.
Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter – thought has a crucial role in making the world the way it is.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.
Idealism

12. Immanuel Kant

13. The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”
What this means is “going with the moment” or being spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise.”
Inspiration

14. Individuality Romantics celebrated the individual.
During this time period, Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.
Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would write a poem entitled “Song of Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself…”
Individuality

15. Walt Whitman

16. Romanticism began to take root as a movement following the French Revolution.
The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in is considered the beginning of literary Romanticism.
Origins

17. Lyrical Ballads by Walt Whitman and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

18. Romanticism was a movement across all the arts: visual art, music, and literature.
All of the arts embraced themes prevalent in the Middle Ages: chivalry, courtly love. Literature and art from this time depicted these themes. Music (ballets and operas) illustrated these themes.
Shakespeare came back into vogue.
The Arts

19. Neoclassical art was rigid, severe, and unemotional; it hearkened back to ancient Greece and Rome
Romantic art was emotional, deeply-felt, individualistic, and exotic. It has been described as a reaction to Neoclassicism, or “anti-Classicism.”
Visual Arts

20. Romantic Art
Neoclassical Art
Visual Arts: Examples

21. “Classical” musicians included composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Josef Haydn.
Romantic musicians included composers like Frederic Chopin, Franz Lizst, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Music

22.
Classical music emphasized internal order and balance.
Romantic music emphasized expression of feelings.
Music: Components

23. Literature In America, Romanticism most strongly impacted literature.
Writers explored supernatural and gothic themes.
Writers wrote about nature – Transcendentalists believed God was in nature, unlike “Age of Reason” writers like Franklin and Jefferson, who saw God as a “divine watchmaker,” who created the universe and left it to run itself.
Literature