The Romantic Movement (1785-1832)
Stuff Happening: 1785-1832 1783: Treaty of Paris ends American Revolution 1788: Great Britain begins sending convicts to Australia, rather than America 1789: Storming of the Bastille! 1791: Mozart dies in Vienna 1799: Napoleon. 1800: World Population about one billion 1801: United Kingdom formed 1802: Slave rebellion in Haiti 1803: Louisiana Purchase, Morphine derived from opium 1807: UK outlaws slave trade across Atlantic 1811: King George III is declared insane – Regency Period 1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo 1829: Scotch Tape invented 1830: First railway station in US opens, lawn mower and sewing machine invented
Terms Explained romance: the actions and feelings of people who are in love, especially behavior which is very caring or affectionate. Romance: episodic narratives concerned with the exploits of knights, chivalry, and courtly love (generally Medieval) Romanticism: a literary style and philosophy focused on subjective experience, nature, imagination, and the individual (late 1700s)
The Romantic Creed “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” William Wordsworth, The Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Tenets of Romanticism Nature is beautiful, powerful, untamable Humanity must look to Nature to understand itself Emotions are important Poetry should be about common people! Written in common language, accessible Common people are closer to nature, less artificial
Romanticism is Reactionary! Pre-Romanticism Industrialization and Urbanization Enlightenment: Reason over Emotion Enlightenment: All about the over-educated American and French Revolutions Romanticism Industry is artificial, Nature is Real Emotion over Reason! The common people are Real, should have voice The commoners do have power!
Pre-Romantics Pre-Romantic Poetry: Romantic tendencies Emotional explorations Nature is powerful and untamed Neoclassic influences Imitating traditional literary forms Thomas Gray Robert Burns William Blake
Romantics! First Generation Second Generation William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge About twenty years younger Lord Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats
There’s Prose too! Gothic Novels: so Romantic--suspense, mystery, magic, the macabre, untamed nature, and Medieval settings Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley Novel of Manners: satirical look at society Jane Austen. Historical Romance Novels: set in a period before the life of their author (often medieval), with fictional and nonfictional characters Sir Walter Scott