1. A Reaction Against Rationalism
Romanticism
A Reaction Against Rationalism

2. What is “Romantic”? Puritans = Faith Deists = Reason
Romantics = EMOTION! (heart rules!)
This is not romantic such as roses on your anniversary…so what do we mean?

3. Reaction against Rationalism
1. Feeling rather than logic
2. Imagination/self expression
3. Interest in faraway times and places
4. Idealize common man and simple life
5. Idealize primitive and picturesque

4. 6. Interest in supernatural, mystical
7. Adore nature
8. Feeling of independence/ individualism
9. Mood of optimism

5. Romanticism began in Europe 1785-1830
1. Romantic movements in France, England, and Germany
2. A group of Romantic poets and writers wrote about rebellion, emotion, and sensuality.
3. They became celebrities in their time!

6. The U.S. had a natural tendency toward Romanticism at this time, as a reaction against the extreme reason of the Deists

7. Art
Art searched for magical and irrational reactions to experience

8. Explored the darkness of human behavior
Explored grim and horrible aspects of life

9. Interest in ever changing nature, its various forms, colors, lights, rhythms, & movements
Pastoral scenes

11. Struggle of life and death
Intensity of light, dark, and color

12. Interest in classical world
Plight of the sick, poor, and weak
Color, emotion, passion REPLACE line, form, intellect of neoclassic art

13. Music Germany the leading country of 19th C. composers
Beethoven provided transition from classical to romantic – symphony, chamber music (Symphony #5)
Mendelsson – leading conductor in early 19th C.
Liszt – piano virtuosity
Wagner – music drama, opera

14. Architecture
England the leader with Gothic towers & medieval castle-like features
Eiffel tower finished in Paris 1889

15. Borrowed a lot from other times & cultures (Indian & Chinese)

16. Why was U.S. ready for Romanticism in 1815
1. U.S. had a democratic society with emphasis on liberty, equality, brotherhood
2. Emphasis on individual self-reliance, encouraged by an expanding western frontier
3. Mood of optimism in a land of expanding opportunities
4. Religious spirit – traced to early Amer.

17. 5. After the War of 1812, American was in an adolescent period
- Deists somewhat de-emphasized religion, but it always remained important to Americans
5. After the War of 1812, American was in an adolescent period
Everything seemed “dandy”
Physical expansion
Population increasing (immigration)
Railroads, Erie Canal
manufacturing

18. 6. Pride in region and state (sectionalism)
South: economy based on slavery, cotton, plantation life
“Democratic West”: expanding frontier, gold in California, rapid settlement, still agricultural
“European East”: old world influence, industrialized

19. 7. Nationalism Began with War of 1812 and Creation of Uncle Sam
Manifest Destiny (US expansion & power)
Patriotism spread to other areas: education, humanitarian reforms
(ie. prison reform),
women’s rights,
abolishing slavery…
Era of the “Common Man”

20. Subject Matter of Romanticism
1. The American Past:
interested in past
events such as
Puritans,
Native Americans,
George Washington,
etc.

21. 2. Nature Spiritual resource
Nature as source of man’s vitality: a revitalizing force
“Wild” nature of the frontier was especially attractive

22. 3. Common man Plain folk, rustic living, natural, early man
Democratic ideals
Death
Miscellaneous
- beauty
- youth
- strange and distant
places
- personal feelings and
events

23. Romantic Literary Style
Literature as self expression
More personal autobiography
Personal essays
Lyric poetry with immense range of emotion
Life and art should be individual
Most romantics were careful and deliberate craftsmen in spite of their theories
Use of symbols to make the abstract more understandable

24. Poet or writer tries to present ordinary things of life in a new way, through imagination
Music was held in high esteem
Addition of strangeness to beauty
Often looked toward the foreign and strange--mystical