1. The Romantic Revolution

2. In the Second Half of the 18th century…
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)
Pre-romantic sensibility was characterized by
a predilection for night, darkness and death
cult of ruins
terror and fantasies
an interest in medieval and northern literature and folklore
Most of these tendencies and interests were called Gothic

3. The Romantic Revolution
The French Revolution and the impact it had on British culture and society
The revolutionary spirit took on various forms:
political and social revolution
revolt against all forms of authority conflicting with human dignity
free expression of personal feeling

4. European Romanticism Romanticism was a truly European movement
Germany: Goethe, Schiller, Herder (Sturm und Drang)
France: Madame de Staël, Hugo
Italy: Berchet, Manzoni, Foscolo

5. Romantic Themes and Conventions
Feeling vs Rationality  instinct, feeling, intuition
Feeling and emotion were essential steps towards a true knowledge of things
Imagination  the central point of the creating process
It connected the individual mind and the physical world

6. Romantic Themes and Conventions
A love of nature  works contained many descriptions of nature
Romantic writers endowed natural scenes with life, passion and feeling
Commonplace and supernatural  ordinary life, dreams, nightmare and visions were cultivated by the Romantics
The universe was a living entity that could reveal itself to man on two levels: the visible (nature) and the invisible (the supernatural)

7. Romantic Themes and Conventions
Individualism  introspection, individualism
The Romantics’ individualism was also reflected in isolation from society
The ‘dark’ Romantic hero  a glorious failure, haunted by remorse for his faults and wasted opportunities
The Romantics show a marked interest in the strange, the uncommon, the forbidden

8. Romantic Themes and Conventions
Search for the infinite  it made the poet a prophet-like creature
It was destined to fail, but this gloriously impossible task was the artist’s glorious mission