1. The Romantic Period

2. Enlightenment to Romanticism
The generation of revolution, wars, and upheaval that was represented in the Enlightenment period produced doubts for people
Doubts and pessimism now challenged the hope and optimism of the 18th century.
Humans felt deepened concern for the abstract problems of existence, death, and eternity.
THUS, Romanticism was born

3. Romanticism
Not referring to love, but imaginative, idealized fiction and poetry
Romanticism swept through Europe, United States, Latin America
Purpose: revolt against an established order: rules, laws, and formulas that characterized earlier times
Praised
Imagination over reason
Emotions over logic
Intuition over science
Titled: A poet and a painter

4. Historical Background
Two of the most influential revolutions in history
French Revolution
Romantics championed the cause of freedom
Disillusioned with the bloodshed
Industrial Revolution
Turned cities into dirty squalid slums
Left a yearning for the natural world.

5. Romanticism in Literature
Imagination, emotions, intuition
As a result, passion and sensibility ensued
Static characters were replaced with passionate, complex characters who had internal and external struggles
Human personality and mood were incorporated into characters

6. Romantic theme - Liberation
Libertarian and abolitionist movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were rooted in romantic thought
The idea was to be free of convention and tyranny
There was a new emphasis on rights and dignity of the individual
Themes focused on breaking free from oppressive societies

7. Romantic theme - Nature
Landscape was regarded as an extension of the human personality, capable of sympathy with a human’s emotional state
Nature was regarded as a vehicle for spirit – God’s breath fills both man and earth
Delight in unspoiled scenery and the innocent life of rural dwellers fascinated the romantic writers
Along with this “rural life” is the idealized romantic melancholy that is being threatened by the changing, bustling world

8. Romanticism: Lure of the exotic
Focus: Love, mystery, superstition
The imagination as a gateway to transcendent experiences and spiritual truths
Settings and themes: in folk culture and cultural origins

9. William Wordsworth Known for Lyrical Ballads Poetry should express:
Experience as filtered through personal emotion and imagination
The truest experience can be found in nature
The power of the sublime (elevated, lofty, awe-inspiring) was found in nature, therefore literature is strengthened in nature, where wild countrysides hold this power of the sublime

10. John Keats Known for his odes
His intellectual and emotional sensibility merge together
Sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes
Accentuated extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery

11. The Decline of Romanticism
Mid 19th Century, Romanticism gave way to other movements:
Realism
Naturalism
Victorianism
Depiction of Victorian Era