Romanticism hits different on history, specifically in arts, literature, and poetry. In this article, learn the meaning of Romanticism and why it plays a significant role in nineteenth-century fiction and poetry. Discover its characteristics as you go beyond its origins and values achieved during this era. Moreover, the Romanticism concept map is conceptualized to help you easily visualize this influential period.
Romanticism Concept Map Scope
What is Romanticism?
Romanticism is an era of all forms of art, including literature, looking back to the Classical Greco-Roman civilization for the majority of the 17th and 18th centuries. Furthermore, it is a time when intellectual, literary, and philosophical movements embraced a variety of arts including poetry, painting, music, and history, swept throughout Europe. The replication of earlier architectural styles was another way that romanticism was conveyed in architecture. The imagination and aesthetic of the movement also had an impact on medieval Gothic architecture in Germany and England, and this restored passion gave way to the Gothic Revival.
During this period, artists started seeking ways to represent a people’s true spirit as linguistic theories and nationalist aspirations started to spark interest in it—both in their creative output and in their public personae. The limitations on artistic expression imposed by the previous age’s fashion for artificiality and rigid formalism also made Romantic-era artists restless. A brand-new, more individualized and “organic” idea of aesthetic and philosophical value started to take shape.
Major Characteristics of Romanticism
Given that the Romanticism movement influenced greatly the world of art, poetry, and literature, it is also vital to know the characteristics that this period possessed. Below are some of the important aspects that Romanticism had in order to have a major impact on history.
- The Self/Individualism
For the first time in history, individuals realized during the Romanticism era that each person had aspects of their personality that were hidden from ordinary consciousness. However, at the time of the romantics, it was a revolutionary concept that was further explored throughout the 20th century as part of contemporary psychological theory. The details of each person’s experience in the world and self-examination intrigued the romantics.
Politics, commerce, trade, and famous people’s lives were the main topics of previous authors before this era. Evidently, the lives of common people have been considered as being undeserving of public interest. However, the events of the American and French revolutions and their underlying political doctrines had an impact on the romantics, who shared the revolutionaries’ belief that everybody had the same rights and values as a leader. In addition to this, writers were motivated by this sociopolitical philosophy to evaluate the value of the individual in their work and to concentrate more on the experiences of common people.
- Pantheism
The Romantics favored the notion of Pantheism, which argues that there is no distinction between the creator and the created things, God is not distinct from the world but rather manifests in it. This sense of the divine “presence” throughout creation caused a change in how people viewed nature. Prior to this time, the majority of people were busy trying to make life even more convenient, primarily through farming, and did not see nature as a source of restoration and purity but rather as a resource that could be used and produced.
- Nature and the Natural
The idea that nature was God’s dwelling place throughout the Romantic era was one of the popular characteristics of Romanticism. According to this perspective, God and the natural worlds are one and the same. Many Romantics and atheists learned a certain amount of humility before the immensity, force, and perpetual movement of Nature, especially for the young Wordsworth. Additionally, the power and mystique of forces that evoked awe, solace, and self-discovery are frequently compared to the sublime in nature, which is commonly used as a metaphor for it. Its belief that goodness and naturalness are alike, particularly when it comes to human morality and creative activity, was related to Romanticism’s deification of Nature.
- Emotion and Feeling
The Romantics prioritized passion, intuition, and feeling over rational abstraction because they placed a strong focus on the individual self. They were on the hunt for “the sublime,” a mental or emotional state characterized by awe, fear, and feelings of majesty and wonder. A poet’s response to a wild, isolated, or grandiose natural setting frequently evoked the sublime, as did the huge night sky, enormous geological tectonics, or enormous castles. In addition, Romantics interpreted the world using their hunches rather than objective data. For instance, if a writer felt the divine in a natural setting, the actuality of that presence was not questioned; rather, it was taken for granted because the writer had experienced it.
Brief History of the Romanticism Period
The first generation of British artists, who were active in Europe between 1760 and 1780 and included James Barry, Henry Fuseli, and John Hamilton Mortimer, introduced Romanticism to England. These artists liked to paint subjects that broke away from the time’s rigid decorum and classical or historical mythology. The visionary imagery and influence of some English poets, such as William Blake, inspired romantic artists to favor weird, pitiful, or extravagant topics. A few years later, English painters J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, who excelled at painting gorgeous landscapes and capturing the dynamic the majestic natural world evokes in the artist, represented the Romantics. The two early Romantic artists that spearheaded the trend in France were Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault.
In the 19th century, the Romanticism movement emerged in Europe concerning the industrial revolution and the dissatisfaction with the values of reason promoted by the Enlightenment. The overthrow of the French monarchy and the development of interest in democracy, nationalism, and socialism throughout Europe were the results of the French Revolution, which borrowed some of the concepts put into practice during the American Revolution. The monarchy, which claimed to govern by divine right, had spent so much money that the nation had a huge deficit on the eve of the revolution France was in crisis. Following the French Revolution in 1789, which had a significant social impact on Europe, romanticism came into being. This new movement, which was founded on the same principles of liberty, fraternity, and legality, sought to emphasize the emotions and the irrational world of the artist and of nature in contrast to the predominance of Reason and Rationality during Neoclassicism.
Conclusion
Romanticism was an attitude or philosophical orientation that pervaded numerous works of Western civilization from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, including literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography. As was discussed above, it gives emphasis to the importance of every individual and appreciates the beauty of nature. Along with it, the Romanticism concept map helps you to have a brief view of what happened in this era. Stay tuned for more interesting topics and mind maps, here in GitMind.
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