Romanticism

Provisional Definition British romanticism can be understood as a sustained rejoinder or response to industrial modernity. Romanticism responds to and questions the ideals of the enlightenment. Romanticism responds to and questions the industrialization of human experience. Romanticism responds to and questions the systematic ordering and pacing of human life in the age of industry. Romanticism avows and seeks to describe transcendent experience. Romanticism questions the idea that reason or rationality can account for all human experience.

Dialectical Theory of History A dialectic is a framework for viewing tensions between two opposing viewpoints or forces. In a dialectic, each view or force opposes the other in some fundamental way, and that opposition may be viewed as their essential characteristic. Just as one set of ideals, practices and assumptions are accepted, questioning those ideals is inevitable. History unfolds according to this opposition and may, in some sense, even be predicted along these lines. The Enlightenment, which occurs in the late 17th and early 18th centuries can be seen in dialectical tension with English Romanticism, which took shape in the late 18th century on into the 19th century.

Enlightenment: The long 18th Century Characteristics of Enlightenment society: Faith in Science and scientific inquiry rather than in religious mysticism. Growth of industry and industrialization. A tendency toward democratic governance and away from monarchical rule. Upholding the ideals of logic and reason as fundamental to the human project or to human experience. In England especially, the idea of utilitarianism, or “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. ” (J.S. Mill)

Enlightenment Ideals Characteristics of Enlightenment thinking: Human experience operates within a structure, containing a logic that can and will inevitably be discovered. Human happiness is the aim of all human existence. There can be shared, agreed-upon goals for maximizing human happiness. Even disruptive impulses have their place within the social order.

Romanticism: The Critique of Reason Characteristics of Romanticism Passion, rather than happiness may be the end or goal of human experience. Intensity of feeling, or passion is worthy of pursuing, even as it may doom you. In nature can be found an antidote to the mechanization and industrialization of human experience.

Characteristics of Romantic Literature Focus on the human relationship to nature and to the natural world. Resistance to social convention and social norms. Focus on what might be beyond the control of social convention or logical reasoning—concern with what is beyond the bounds of social control (sometimes quantified as the sublime). Passion, rather than happiness as the end or goal of human experience; intensity of feeling, or passion is worthy of pursuing, even as it may doom you. Emphasis on the power of individuals and the individual expression of powerful, passionate ideas in poetry.

Contemporary relevance of this dialectic Negatives: The horrors of recent history are sometimes seen as the consequence of Romantic excesses/passions. Look at figures like Hitler, Stalin, etc… The horrors of recent history are sometimes seen as the consequence of Enlightenment faith in science/reason. Look at war technologies like the atomic bomb, etc… Positives: The advances of the 20th century are sometimes seen as the consequence of Enlightenment faith in science/reason. Look at medical breakhroughs, etc… There is no corresponding positive vision for the achievement of Romantic expression of feeling/passion. Thesis: Both Romantic and Enlightenment visions concern the governance of mass society, or of large groups of people living among one-another. Enlightenment tends to subsume all human experience to the ideal of human progress while Romanticism remains fascinated with questioning social norms and the possibility of transcendence.