1. Romanticism & The Gothic Novel

2. Romanticism 1785-1830 (roughly) Emphasis on inner feelings External objects are only given meaning after the author has projected their own imagination and feelings onto them Spontaneous: art should arise from impulse and be free of rigid structures

3. Romanticism Sometimes referred to as “nature poetry;” however, most saw nature as a stimulus to the most beautiful of activities: thinking. Goal of romantic writers = arouse in the mind of reader a sense of wonder and awe (sublime = awe inspiring)

4. Romantic Checklist Examination of inner feelings Idealistic Interested in mysterious/supernatural Developed new forms of expression Romanticized the past Tended toward spontaneity Appreciate folk traditions Felt that nature should be untamed

5. In a Nutshell… “The Romantic Period, the age of unfettered free enterprise, industrial expansion, and boundless revolutionary hope, was also an age of radical individualism in which both the philosophers and poets put an extraordinarily high estimate on human potentialities and powers.”

6. Elements Sublime: induces awe/wonder in reader Supernatural: opened up to the modern world the realm of mystery and magic, in which materials from ancient folklore, superstition, and demonology are used to suggest to the reader the sense of occult powers and unknown modes of being

7. Elements Gothic: frequent setting of stories in gloomy castles/mansions and rough landscapes. Explore the dark, irrational side of human nature—the perverse impulses and “nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the controlled and ordered surface of the human mind.”