Download Romantic Movement

THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
I.
ROMANTICISM OR THE ROMANTIC AGE
A. INTRODUCTION
1. Term used to describe life and literature in Europe from 1750'S TO 1840'S
2. even though term coined 50 yrs after Romantic age
3. romantics felt living in a new era
a. new spirit permeated their thoughts
b. like men of Renaissance
4. Romantics had widespread artistic, intellectual & political impact
5. Romanticism - reactionary movement, a protest
a. against Enlightenment, Sci Rev
b. against ideas of
(1) reason
(2) rationality
(3) narrowness
(4) intellectual certainty
(a) grounded in concrete scientific experimentation
6. w/physical sciences as their model, philosophes had approached every field of human knowledge
a. confident that reason would protect them from fundamental error
(1) & guide them to truth
7. English romantic poet Blake's rejoinder
a. "God Forbid that truth should be confined to mathematical demonstration.
8. romantics against Enlightenment categorizing people as they categorized nature
9. Enlightenment had sought universal principles
10. Romantics exaggerate differences & particularities of things, events
11. ROMANTICS PREFERRED HEART-KNOWLEDGE TO HEAD-KNOWLEDGE
12. Romantics gave free reign to emotions & imagination
a. intensity of feeling
b. revolt against authority
c. revolt against materialistic world of budding Industrial Revolution
d. individualistic vs collective behavior
e. faith in man & personal liberty
13. in general romantic writers placed individual rather than society at the center of their vision
a. the hero of every romantic poem is the poet himself
14. called Enlightenment
a. "that ugly skeleton w/o flesh or blood."
15. French Rev gave life & breath to dreams of some Romantic writers
a. ideas of fraternity, liberty & equality for all of society
16. conflict & dichotomy in romantic movement
a. eg. reactionaries of the Congress of Vienna
(1) deplored nonconformity of romantics
(2) yet Austria Foreign Minister, epitome of conservative, age of reason, Metternich
(a) could recite long stanzas from Byron by heart
B. HOW ROMANTICISM MANIFESTED ITSELF
1. literature
a. mainly poetry
b. but other genre too
(1) drama
(2) historical novels
2. music
3. study of history
a. past eras of less civilized times
b. special reverence for Middle Ages
4. love of folk lore, folk customs
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5. painting
6. architecture
7. religion
8. helped to crystallize nationalism
C. ROMANTICISM PERMEATED 2 LEVELS OF SOCIETY
1. popular culture of masses
2. thoughts of educated people
a. intelligencia ideas
3. but Romanticism primarily movement of Intelligencia class
II. MOVEMENT OF ROMANTICISM
A. HARBINGERS OF ROMANTICISM
1. Rousseau
a. man is free, but everywhere in chains
b. "civilization has corrupted man"
2. Enlightenment philosophes regarded evil as basic part of human nature
3. Rousseau generally saw man as naturally good
a. but corrupted by society
b. & its institutions of religion, education & govt.
4. although German movement of 1770's was an early harbinger of movement
a. aptly named Sturm und Drang (Storm & Stress)
b. after play by obscure dramatist
5. most popular work of Sturm and Drang period was The Sorrows of Young Werther
a. lugubrious (mournful) short novel by young Goethe
(1) even Napoleon claimed to have read it 7 times, weeping copiously each time at hero's suicide
B. English Lyric Poets
1. most historians state Romantic movement started England w/lyric poets
2. Romantic Movement began w/publication 1789 Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth & Coleridge
3. England was the home of romantic poets
4. these poets opposed literature of ancien regime
a. stilted & artificial verses
5. opposed neoclassic tradition of satire, wit & reason as expressed by Dryden, Pope.
a. even Dryden's name lends itself to dry poetry of Age of Reason and Enlightenment
6. poetry should be spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
7. Romantics praised depth & vigor of Bible, Homer & Shakespeare
8. Now subject of poems changed from previous age to
a. their personal experiences
b. thoughts, feelings of man not his actions
c. dream state, supernatural
d. poems now in first person
9. Keats = “poetry must come naturally as leaves to a tree or it better not come at all”
10. thus Romantic Movement age of poetry in contrast to 18th c age of prose
11. Wordsworth 1770-1850 & Coleridge
a. The Lyrical Ballads
b. poetry expressed powerful feelings
12. also called Lake poets
13. Wordsworth's works
a. Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
(1) expression of interconnection between nature & human imagination
(2) nature not a machine as scientific revolution people said
(3) nature a living organism filled w/beautiful forms
(4) whose inner meaning grasped through human imagination
14. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
a. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
(1) most famous poem
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(2) Ancient Mariner bears terrible burden of albatross hung around neck
(3) as curse for killing bird of good luck
C. OTHER ENGLISH POETS
1. John Keats
a. nb to him the pursuit & worship of beauty
b. Ode to Grecian Urn
(1) exemplifies his philosophy
(2) “beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all ye know on earth & all ye need to know”
2. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822
a. even lives of these poets epitomizes Rom Mvt.
3. Mary Shelley
a. Gothic novel Frankenstein
4. Lord Byron 1788-1824
a. British nobleman who became social outcast for his morals
b. poetry, melancholy nature & early death (36) in the Greek War of Independence made him a
Romantic hero
5. HEINRICH HEINE
a. leading romantic poet of Germany language
D. MY READING OF MARIANA BY TENNYSON
1. follows romantic poets
III. PROSE WRITERS
A. General Remarks
1. romantic writers emphasized emotion & sentiment
2. believed these inner feelings only understandable to person experienced them
3. many romantics possessed passionate interest in past
4. romantics could also bring out the bizarre & unusual
a. whether in times past, remote regions of world or supernatural
B. Victor Hugo
1. Les Miserables,
a. France 1815-35
b. romantic novel, sociological study of poverty & slum life
c. spent 14 yrs on the book
d. life story of a criminal Jean Valjean
e. 19 yrs in prison for stealing loaf of bread to feed his starving sister & her family (originally 5 yrs,
but more added on for attempting escape)
2. Hunchback of Notre Dame
a. 15th c. time frame
C. George Sand (Amandine Lucie Dupin)
1. prolific novelist
2. bohemian lifestyle
3. movie - Impromptu - her love affair with Chopin
D. Jane Austin 1775-1817
1. English novelist
2. Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility
a. faithfully recorded upper-middle society
b. English production superb
E. Alexandre Dumas
1. novelist & dramatist
2. best known for his historical romances of the swashbuckling type
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
4. The Three Musketeers
F. Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832
1. Scottish poet & novelist of medieval themes
2. discovered & gave to literature the historical novel
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3. his novels became best sellers in first half 19th c Europe
4. Ivanhoe
a. days of Richard I, the Lionhearted, Crusades
b. story of chivalric romance
c. Scott tried to evoke clash between Saxon & Norman knights in medieval England
d. Elizabeth Taylor film production
5. Kenilworth
a. time of plot 1575 - Elizabeth I
b. Kenilworth Castle setting for much of action of this novel
G. Russian authors
1. Aleksander Pushkin 1799-1837
a. created truly Russian literary form
(1) when he deserted archaic Slavonic language of Orthodox Church
b. introduced local color from Russian history & from newly acquired provinces in Crimea & Caucasus
c. Eugene Onegin
2. Tolstoy
a. War & Peace, Anna Karenina
3. Dostoevski
a. Brothers Karamazov
4. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE 1749-1832
5. Perhaps greatest German literary figure of modern times
6. he defies any easy classification
7. part of his literary production fits into Romantic mold
8. part of it is a condemnation of Romantic excesses
9. greatest masterpiece Faust
a. some say great work in German language
b. begun when in his twenties & finished only when he was 80
c. philosophical commentary on main currents of European thought
d. tells story of Faust who weary of life, makes a pact w/Devil
e. he will exchange his soul for greater knowledge than other human beings
10. Gounod 181-93 - French composer of opera Faust
IV. OTHER MANIFESTATIONS OF ROMANTIC ERA
A. REVERENCE FOR HISTORY
1. especially the Middle Ages
2. revered less civilized periods of history
a. for their special wisdom
3. 18th c writers had harshly criticized virtually all aspects of Middle Ages
a. they considered Middle Ages unenlightened time
4. Gothic ruins became a treasured source of inspiration
a. saved from destruction
b. where none existed they were constructed anew
5. Examples of Neo-Gothic architecture
a. British House of Parliament
b. reconstruction of Cathedral of Notre Dame - Paris
c. Neuscwanstein
6. since railroad developed in England as romantic fondness for gothic at its height
7. so many of huge new railroad stations & hotels
a. embellished with turrets
b. pointed arches
c. ornate roof lines
d. even stained glass windows
e. eg. St. Pancreas Station in London
8. Vicomte Francois Rene de Chateaubriand
a. The Genius of Christianity
(1) Bible of Romanticism in architecture
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B. FOLK CULTURE
1. Romantics also deeply interested in folklore, folk songs & fairy tales
2. felt popular wisdom to be found in folk songs & tales & rural customs
3. R influenced movements in many European countries to collect & preserve oral traditions
4. Brothers Grimm (Jacob & Wilhelm) from Germany
a. Grimms Fairy Tales
b. Rapunzel
c. Hansel & Gretel
d. Little Red Riding Hood
e. Tom Thumb
f. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
g. Rumpelstiltskin
V. MUSIC
A. GENERAL REMARKS
1. to many romantics music most romantic of arts
2. since it enabled composer to probe deeply into human emotions & one's soul
3. music historians have usually called 28th c age of classicism
4. 19th c era of Romanticism
5. Romantic movement ushered in great era of music
6. w/numerous composers that have endured to this day
7. time frame extended for music past 1850's though
8. Liberation from forms that dominated classical era found in many composers
9. later on nationalism in music would evoke strong patriotism and nostalgia for one's homeland
10. folk songs & folk music both in England & Germany will become very popular too
11. for romantics music no longer something to listen to while you ate a nice dinner or carrie don a
conversation
12. music had gained a new dignity
13. it required full attention
14. underlying conception of music as a mode of self-expression that chiefly fascinated Romantic generation
B. COMPOSERS
1. Louis Hector Berlioz 1803-69
a. French composer
b. who set Faust's damnation to music
c. along with Charles Gounod 1818-93 (another French musician)
2. Frederic Chopin 1810-49
a. Polish pianist
3. Franz Liszt 1811-86
a. Hungarian pianist who composed symphonic poems & Hungarian rhapsodies
b. so popular akin to Elvis Presley & Madonna mania
4. Schubert
5. Mendelssohn
C. LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN 1770-1827
1. Flemish ancestry, but Viennese adoption
2. epitomizes romantic age in music
a. although in his earlier years was a classical composer
3. his music, more than that of any other composer
4. gives impression of being a direct outpouring of his personality
a. characteristic of romantic movement
5. he revolutionized symphonic music by adding emotional qualities
a. to classical formalism of Mozart & Haydn
6. Beethoven's music is not always volcanic & exuberant
7. it may melt into tenderness or sadness
8. abrupt contrasts of mood occur in his music
9. revolutionary element in his music
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a. free, impulsive, mysterious, demonic spirits
fervent believer in freedom & dignity of man
not content to be idol of aristocratic circles but
strove to reach wide popular audience
widely acclaimed during his lifetime
by 28 signs of deafness & by 50 deaf
composed 9 symphonies
a. 5th -famous
Moonlight Sonata
Ode to Joy
Violin Concerto in D
VI. PAINTERS
A. General Remarks
1. While romanticism in the paintings
B. J. M. W. Turner, (1775-1851, John Constable (1776-1837) & Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)
1. your text has two of Delacroix' paintings
a. Liberty Leading the People, and Massacre at Chios
2. Constable's The Hay Wain
VII. PHILOSOPHERS
A.
Georg.W. F. Hegel 1770-1831
1. German romantic philosopher
2. The Philosophy of History
3. most influential philosopher of 19th c
4. work reflects many elements of Romanticism
5. since 19th c almost all great western Philosophies
a. pragmatic
b. existentialist
c. materialistic
d. idealistic
e. have had to come to terms w/Hegel's ideas
6. his beliefs
a. ideas develop in an evolutionary fashion that involves conflict
b. at any given time a predominant set of ideas, "the thesis" holds sway
c. these ideas challenged by other conflicting ideas = antithesis
d. as these patterns of thought clash, there emerges a synthesis
(1) which eventually becomes the new thesis
e. then the process begins all over again
7. other ideas of Hegel
8. periods of world history receive their character from the patterns of thought predominating during them
9. nb belief from this
a. all periods of history have been of almost equal value because each was, by definition, necessary to
the achievements of those that came later
b. all cultures are valuable because each contributes to the necessary clash of values & ideas that allows
humankind to develop
c. he discusses these concepts in his The Phenomenology of Mind & Lectures on the Philosophy of
History
10. behind dev of human history from 1 period to the next lay the mind & purpose of "World Spirit"
a. concept resembling the Christian God
11. particular heroes from the past such as Caesar and Napoleon were the unconscious instruments of that
spirit.
a. these heroes could change the course of history
12. these concepts are characteristic of the romantic belief
a. human beings & human history are always intimately connected w/larger, spiritual forces at work in
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the world
VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
A. IMPACT OF ROMANTICS
1. Writers & thinkers of the early 19th c romantic movement had more influence than any earlier group
2. the romantic movement coincided w/a swift & dramatic expansion of literacy in Western Europe
3. by 1850 well over 60% of the adults in the western countries could read & write
4. if woman are excluded % is even higher
5. for 1st time a sizable reading public able to assimilate, criticize & adopt the ideas they read about in books
6. it would be difficult to overestimate the effect of Romanticism on this readership
7. the romantic movement influenced
a. dress
b. speech
c. behavior
8. at one extreme it promoted a refinement of dandyism in London that led Beau Brummel to employ 3
different hairdressers for the front, sides & back of his coiffure
a. & to order his gloves from two firms, one of which made only the thumb, the other the rest of the
fingers
9. at the other extreme, Romanticism created a Bohemian subculture
10. an exalted view of the artist that led Charlotte Stieglitz, wife of an obscure poet to strangle herself in the
hope that her death would inspire him to greatness
B. TODAY
1. power of romantic nationalism is omnipresent
2. diverse peoples that make up the former Yugoslavia, former Soviet Union, African areas
3. Quebec, Northern Ireland
4. all are nationalists that
a. want their own state
b. want their own customs & laws
c. want their own heroes
5. each nation views itself as unique & thus ipso facto then better
6. Americans go through periods of romanticism
a. exemplified by our folksy decor
b. longing for rural living
c. ecology groups wanting to maintain pristine areas
d. much of nonsense about family values in last political campaign involves very rosy distortion of what
traditional families like in 19th century and 50's of this century
e. above all, we are nostalgic about the past
f. especially about romanticized versions of a past that night never have been