1. The Romantic Period

2. Definition Romanticism refers to a movement during the 19th century.
Romanticism was a movement across all the arts: visual art, music, and literature.
The arts embraced themes prevalent in the Middle Ages, such as chivalry and courtly love.
Shakespeare became popular again .

3. Origins
1789: Romanticism began to take root as a movement following the French Revolution. The French Revolution brought inspiring new ideals of democracy that were eventually crushed by the disillusioning reign of the guillotine that followed.
1798: The publication of Lyrical Ballads with a Few Other Poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1792 is considered the beginning of literary Romanticism.

4. Context The Industrial Revolution: factories and overcrowded cities
Laissez faire economics: the government does not interfere in the economy which allowed the rich to grow richer and poor grow poorer
Upset by the economic and social conditions Romantic poets rebelled against literary norms which favored reason and rigid structure

5. Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s-
Characteristics:
Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s-
Imagination
Intuition
Idealism
Inspiration
Individuality

6. Imagination Imagination emphasized over “reason”
Backlash against the rationalism characterized by the Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason”
Imagination considered necessary for creating all art
British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called imagination “intellectual intuition” and encouraged “willing suspension on disbelief” in reading lit.

7. Idealism
Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter – thought has a crucial role in making the world the way it is.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.

8. Intuition
Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason.
Emotions were important in Romantic art.
British Romantic William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

9. Inspiration
The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”
Fascinated with youth and innocence in which one matures by learning to explore and trust the emotions, sense of will, and identity
Romanticism emphasized going with the moment, or being spontaneous, rather than being precise, controlled, or realistic.

10. Individuality
Questioned tradition and authority and imagined a better, idealistic society
Embraced affinity for change and adapting to change
Romantics celebrated the individual.
During this time period, Women’s Rights and Abolitionism took root as major movements.

11. Literary Developments
Poetry composed of simple, unadorned language, common objects/occurrences and references to nature in order to express emotions and encourage imagination
Lyrical poetry
Contains a “speaker” different from the poet who is speaking to some one/thing
Does not use reason to convince reader, but reader must use his/her imagination to “overhear” the conversation to understand the truths of the heart expressed
A genuine account of an experience and the relationship between the mind and other people or things

12. The Romantic Poets:
Irreplaceable contributors to their society who used acted as teachers, prophets and rulers
Robert Burns (“To a Mouse”)
William Blake (Songs of Innocence & Experience)
William Wordsworth (“…Tintern Abbey”)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” & “Kubla Khan”)
Lord Bryon (“The Destruction of Sennacherib”)
Mary Wollstonecraft (Frankenstein)
Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility)
John Keats (“Ode to a Nightingale”)

13. Common Literary Devices:
Apostrophe
Allusions
Blank verse
Imagery
Paradox
Romantic Lyrics
Figurative language & Word choice
Internal & external rhyme
Assonance & consonance
Personification
Parallelism & Repetition
Symbolism
Similes & metaphors

14. The British Romantic Hero: Byronic Hero
Often rebellious in nature [doesn’t wish to follow the norms of society]
He is usually isolated from society as a wanderer or is in exile of some kind.
Because he rejects the values and moral codes of society, he is often unrepentant by society's standards.
Larger than life intellectual capacity, pride, and passion.
These heightened abilities often make the hero arrogant, extremely confident, abnormally sensitive, and extremely conscious of himself.
Moody by nature or passionate about a particular issue.
Often plagued by a guilty memory of some terrible unnamed crime.
With the possibility greatness, yet seriously flawed in some manner, our hero usually meets with sad a end.
Due to these characteristics, the hero is often a figure of repulsion, as well as fascination.

15. Pre Romantic: Robert Burns 25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796
Claim to fame: Best read, best loved, most popular of Scottish poets; regarded as “the national poet of Scotland.”
Reputation stems from a natural lyrical ability (majority of his poems have been set to music) and his use of the common vernacular (dialect).
Life and career pre-date the Romantic period, but his poetry is worthy of our attention because it anticipates many of the Romantic ideals and techniques. His pre-Romantic influence shows especially in the works of these Romantic writers: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Percy Shelley. According to one text, Burns’ talent was of “the natural genius. . .whose poems owed nothing to literary study, but instead represented the spontaneous overflow of his native feelings” (Greenblatt et. al.).

16. Burns’ Enduring Appeal
After his death Burns became an important source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among Scots who have relocated to other parts of the world, celebration of his life and work became almost a national cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature.

17. Gothic
Setting: “pseudo-medieval,” e.g. in a dark castle or abbey with secret passageways and hidden trap doors
Themes often focused on the darker side of human nature: betrayal, the desire for revenge, insanity, superstition, etc.
Supernatural Elements: ghosts and spirits
Mood and Tone: mysterious, dark, suspenseful, meant to arouse terror