1. Romantic art
Romantic artist broke from discipline & rules of the Enlightenment
Painted the beauty and power of nature
Used bold brush strokes and colors
Bright colors convey violent energy & emotions
Painted simple peasant to medieval knights to current events
Casper David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818

2. Romanticism  views on truth
One would only find truth through their own intuition given they highlighted the importance of individual thought and not societal thought
Emotions & imagination > Reason
Enlightenment thinkers thought that truth existed only as result of reason
Reason > Emotions

3. Romanic Literature The Romantic Hero or “Byronic”
New kind of hero appears in writing
Named after the British poet, Lord Byron – his writing and life exemplify all the traits of the “Romantic Hero”

4. The Romantic Hero “The Byronic Hero”
Traits of a Byronic Hero:
Usually male
Intelligent, cunning, ruthless, arrogant, violent, self-aware
Mysterious, melancholy (sad/depressed) figure who felt out of step with society
Often has a guilty secret and faced a grim destiny
Seductive and sexually-appealing (charming/player)

5. Ex. of Byronic Hero
The character Werther from Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther
Werther
an sensitive and passionate artist who falls in love with a beautiful girl name Charlotte
Charlotte is engaged to an older man—Albert.
Werther is tortured throughout the story because of unrequited love and commits suicide at the end.
g-EER-tha

6. Contemporary Byronic Hero
Traits of a Byronic Hero:
Usually male
Intelligent, cunning, ruthless, arrogant, violent, self-aware
Mysterious, melancholy (sad/depressed) figure who felt out of step with society
Often has a guilty secret and faced a grim destiny
Seductive and sexually-appealing (charming/player)
Tony Stark/Ironman

7. Can you think of the Byronic hero trope in any modern day lit/film/t.v. characters?

8. Realism Mid-1800s, lit & artistic movement Reaction to Romanticism
An attempt to represent the world as it was, without the sentiment associated with romanticism
Focused their work on the harsh side of life in cities or villages
Many writers & artist committed to improving the lot of the unfortunate whose lives they depict

9. Realism in literature Novels depicts grim reality
Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist
Victor Hugo’s Les Miserable
Emile Zola’s Germinal
Plays attack the hypocrisy around them
Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll’s House & An Enemy of the People

10. Realism in Art Rejects Romanticism ideals
Painters represent realities of the time
Rejects romantic emphasis on imagination
Focus on ordinary subjects, working class men & women
French realist painter Gustove Courbet, “I cannot paint an angel because I have never seen one.”
Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin ,

11. Impressionism
1870s, new artistic movement/style, started in Paris, France
Rose out because of the invention of photography (camera) – why try to paint realistic art when you can take a picture?
Seek to capture the first fleeting impression made by a scene or object on the viewer’s eye

13. Romanticism
Impressionism
Realism

14. Writing Assignment
Choose one modern lit/tv/film character that you think would fit the Byronic Hero trope
Write one paragraph arguing why this character fits this trope