The Romantic Period 1.Historical and Intellectual Background 2.General Features of Romanticism 3.A list of Romanists

Historical and Intellectual Background the Romantic Movement philosophers and thinkers

the Romantic Movement 1.The Industrial Revolution a country of pleasant farm lands and cottage workers to an industrial giant. The farm workers were leaving the small farms. Machine-made goods were replacing the manual work of the peasants

the Romantic Movement 2. American Revolution in 1775 individual rights and the principle of self-determination the desire of man for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” the right of the individual to have a voice in the process of government

the Romantic Movement 3. The publication of William Blake's Poetical Sketches 4. The French Revolution Its battle cry of “liberty, equality, fraternity” was heard all across Europe, announcing the end of an absolute monarchy

the Romantic Movement 5. Lyrical Ballads The publication of the second edition of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, the Preface to which by Wordsworth serves as the manifesto of Romanticism. 6. Sir Walter Scott's collection of ballads entitled Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,

the Romantic Movement 7. The passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 in England, which gave voting powers to members of the lower middle-class who had not before this enjoyed these rights. 8. The accession of Queen Victoria in

philosophers and thinkers who were worth mentioning 1. Jean Jacques Rousseau the father of Romanticism He published The New Heloise in 1761 and Emile in These two works stressed the basic goodness and benevolence of man's nature. The artificial elements in society were to be rejected in favor of the goodness of nature and the intuitive prompting of the heart

philosophers and thinkers who were worth mentioning 2. Edmund Burke He links the sublime and the beautiful to human emotions and physical senses as well as imagination, thus elevating the function of instincts and emotions in his earlier work A Philosophical Enquiry into Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1756)

philosophers and thinkers who were worth mentioning 3. Thomas Paine The Rights of Man a. It is the right of the people to overthrow a government that opposes humanity. b. Opposition to neoclassicist's thinking of binding oneself to traditions and conventions

General Features of Romanticism 1. An emphasis on subjectivism romantic poets the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings the uniqueness of his response to the world looking inward and examine the peculiarity, the particularity, of their own private emotional history a religion of the heart Romantic stove for heroic madness neoclassicists believing in an intelligible world and emphasizing reason Man possesses faculties, notably a mind, that enables him to make some kind of sense of the universe and that what is dark and obscure is probably not worth man's attention. a religion of the head Neoclassical writers strove for common sense

General Features of Romanticism 2. A love for nature Romantic poets are practically all worshipers of nature. They either find some consolation for their lonely soul in nature, taking nature as a living entity that shares the poets' feelings, or read in nature some mysterious force which gives them special inspiration, or even regard nature as the revelation of God

General Features of Romanticism Natural scene has become a primary poetic subject. Romantic “nature poems” are in fact meditative poems, in which the presented scene usually serves to raise an emotional problem or personal crisis whose development and resolution constitute the organizing principle of the poem. The view of natural objects corresponds to an inner or a spiritual world and serves as an understructure for a tendency to write a symbolist poetry

General Features of Romanticism 3. A belief in individuality and freedom Romantic poets put an immensely higher estimate on human potentialities and powers. Romantic poets put great emphasis on the value of individuality and freedom. The aspect of humanity becomes a glory and a triumph instead of a sin or an error. The human being refuses to submit to any limitations and persists in setting infinite goals

General Features of Romanticism Romantic poets sing high the effort to keep one's own individuality as a man and peculiarity and originality as an artist. They also express their fervent love for individual freedom as well as national liberation and their determination to fight against any chain set on human nature. The immediate act of composition should be spontaneous, that is, arising from impulse, and free from all rules and artful manipulation of means to foreseen ends

General Features of Romanticism 4. The glorification of the commonplace to choose incidents and situations from common life selection of language really spoken by men the prime service of their poetry to awaken in the reader “freshness of sensation” in the presentation of “familiar objects a revival of folk literature, a real awakening of interest in the life of the common people their appreciation for the simple but happy life of the common people, or show their deep sympathy for the sufferings of the lower classes, or even find aspiration in their effort to help those people

General Features of Romanticism 5. An interest in the past, the unusual, the unfamiliar, the bizarre or the picturesque 6. A feeling of loneliness The theme of exile, loneliness and a longing for the infinite, for an indefinable and inaccessible goal is commonly found in the poems of the romanticists. This may be partly because of their over- emphasizing the individuality, but the main reason for this lies in their great dissatisfaction with the stark reality which a single individual can not do much to cope with

General Features of Romanticism a revolt against authority and tradition. dissatisfaction with the social reality and their deep hatred for any political tyranny, economic exploitation and any form of oppression, feudal or bourgeois. In the realm of literature, they revolt against reason, rules, regulation, objectivity, common senses, etc

General Features of Romanticism Jane Austen lived mainly in the romantic period, but her writings belong to the realistic category for she weaves vivid pictures of the everyday life of simple country society around the seemingly romantic love stories

A list of Romanists William Blake Robert Burns William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor, George Gordon Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats

A list of Romanists Charles Lamb Walter Scott Jane Austen