Download ROMANTICISM This morning I asked Beatrice, Giuseppe, Luca and

ROMANTICISM
This morning I asked Beatrice, Giuseppe, Luca and some others a question: “What can you tell me
about English Romanticism?”. They gave her answer which, though correct, was only partially so because, as I
told you, “such a widespread and complex movement cannot be summed up in a formula nor even restricted
within narrow time boundaries”. I went on reminding you what you should already know: History, Philosophy
or Italian Studies tell us that, in the first place, Romanticism was “a broad movement” (we could call it
“trasversale”) in the history of European consciousness (bella la parola eh...!) and culture.
Industrialization and the subsequent re-organization of labour (physical work) had already affected
millions of people and, “owing to the radical changes taking place in the historical and social spheres” (e.g. the
French Revolution), “the intellectuals were longing for and preaching justice and equality and called for a total
readjustement of the cultural view of the world”.
You know that Romanticism first manifestation was the “Sturm und Drang” (Storm and Stress)
movement, which took place in Germany in the 1770’s. In 1810, M.me De Stael's published “De
l’Allemagne”, a serious study on German manners, literature and art, philosophy, morals, and religion in
which, among other things, she made known to her contemporaries the "Sturm und Drang" movement, made a
clear distinction between the "romantic" literatures of the North and the "classical" literatures of the South and
emphasized the institutional status of literature, considering the literary text as the expression of society and its
history, in a time when "society" was still identified with the leading social class.
A great supporter of M.me De Stael's ideas was Giovanni Berchet, whose “Lettera Semiseria” (1816) is
considered to be the Manifesto of Italian Romanticism.
The English theoretical contribution to Romanticism is contained in "Preface" to the 2nd edition of the
"Lyrical Ballads" (1800) by William Wordsworth and Samulel Taylor Coleridge - the true Manifesto of English
Romantic poetry (ne parleremo più avanti).
In England the term initially (18th century) referred to the fabulous, the extravagant, the landscape,
thepicturesque .….then it gradually came to be identified with the feeling the landscape created into the
observer and with his subjective, incommunicable emotions.
But, can we say exactly when English Romantic poetry really begins? With the repudiation of the literature of
Enlightened England (see Pre-romanticism), English Romanticism considered itself as a Renaissance of the
English Renaissance. So its roots are far deeper. We might as trace its origins as far as Shakespeare (of whom
Pope [a poet, a satirist and a critic] said: “The Power over our Passions was never possessed in a more eminent
degree”) who would later grow into a godlike figure for the Romantics.
As you already know, Romanticism was a further reaction against eighteen-century rationalism:
Imagination, and not reason, was considered to be the highest faculty of the human mind. Imagination was
conceived not only as a revaluation of man’s emotional life, but also as the fittest instrument to obtain
knowledge, an instrument endowed with creative powers.
This faith in Imagination involved a deep change in the conception of poetry. In the Age of Classicism, poetry
had been considered as the elegant and witty expression of feelings common to all people, whereas the
Romantics considered it as an individual means of getting to know our inner being.
Thus individualism (stressing the solitary state and the special qualities of each individual's
mind), which was fostered (alimentato) by the changed social conditions in the English society, came to
characterize so many Romantic poets. This attitude led to the cult of the hero: the "rebel" in Coleridge, the
"Prometheus" in Shelley, the "Byronic hero".
Jean Jacques Rousseau's theories and the subsequent current of thought were responsible for many of the
Romantics' assertions: civilisation, far from making life decent, represented an intolerable restriction to the
individual's "natural" behaviour: the "noble savage" had an instinctive knowledge of himself, often
superior to that which had been acquired by civilised man; to a Romantic, a child was purer than an
adult: his uncorrupted sensitiveness made him closer to God and the sources of creation. Rousseau's
theories also promoted the "cult of the exotic", of what is far away in space and time.
Here are the main features of poetry in the Romantic Age
POETRY was suited to expressing.....
· emotional experiences
· individual feelings (subjective response to beauty)
IMAGINATION in the first place
the POET was considered as a.....
· teacher/ mediator between Man and Nature (Wordsworth)
· visionary/ prophet (Coleridge/ Shelley)
·
rebel (Byron)
NATURE was perceived.....
· through the poet’s feelings
· as a living being/ force
Technique
· familiar language (no more artificial circumlocutions)
Verse form
· return to past, local forms (e.g.: ballad metre)
®© November 2016