romanticism slideshow

ROMANTICISM: 1800-1865

THE HEART OVER THE HEAD

ROMANTIC BELIEFS: INTUITION  Reason, logic, and rationality have

shortcomings 

They have their place, but they are limited

 Imagination, intuition, and emotion can

discover deeper, abstract, more significant spiritual truths than reason can discover 



Intuition: gut feeling; instinct i.e.: Heaven; God; Beauty

ROMANTIC VIEW OF GOD  Not anthropomorphic: didn’t see God as a person  God is good, loving, merciful and created the

universe and us as good  God is a spirit, a presence, a being that pervades all  As such, God can be discovered by anyone at any time through intuitive insight, usually in Nature away from the noise and distractions of society  Greatest good is to become one with God; to lose the self and merge with the Divine. 

Very Eastern Idea: Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism

 Didn’t care much for organized religion; no need for

the Bible, for a minister, for a Church to discover and worship God

ROMANTIC BELIEFS: NATURE  Nature is good, pure, and innocent  Civilization is bad and the source of evil  Civilization takes man out of his natural, good

state and corrupts him  The more sophisticated and complex our world is, the more disconnected from our natural, good state we become  “Noble Savage”  God, the Divine, is found in Nature  You discover God in Nature intuitively

ROMANTIC BELIEFS: TRUTH  Beauty is truth  It is recognized intuitively, from the heart, not

rationally through the brain  Truth is located in a “transcendent” reality that is beyond the physical world that can only be discovered through emotion, imagination, intuition  Truth often comes in spontaneous moments of insight: epiphanies  Truth is often found through insights gained in Nature

ROMANTIC BELIEFS: THE INDIVIDUAL  Human nature is good and we are born good

and pure; society and its forces corrupt  Individual is more important than society  Society usually is in conflict with the individual, restricting his/her independence, uniqueness, and power  Trust your self; YOU are the source of truth since the Divine is found within you  No need to give authority of your life to anyone else: you know best what to do

ROMANTIC VALUES  Imagination; NOT logic  Intuition; NOT carefully reasoned thought  Spontaneity; NOT careful prudence and  Emotion; NOT detached, dry analysis  The Individual’s power; NOT mindless

allegiance to the rules of society  Exploration: of Nature, of the mind, of the far away and distant, of the exotic and extreme  Deeper spiritual truths; NOT logical ones

ROMANTIC VALUES  Youthful exuberance and energy over

conservative, prudent, thoughtful experience  A nostalgia for the past  The raw, the natural, the unsophisticated over the polished, the refined, the carefully planned

THE THREE BRANCHES OF ROMANTICISM ROMANTICISM CLASSIC ROMANTICS

TRANSCENDENTALISM DARK ROMANTICS

DARK ROMANTICS: POE, MELVILLE, AND HAWTHORNE  How they differ from the other branches:  Not optimistic about life, human nature, or nature  The truths they discover beyond the rational are horrific, frightening, and painful  The emotions they tend to emphasize are fear, dread, disgust, etc  How they are similar to the other branches:  They do believe in deeper, irrational truths  Emphasis on imagination and emotion

GOTHIC ELEMENTS  The bizarre: live burial; whales that carry a

grudge; insanity  The exotic: castles, faraway places, the dreary and the dark  The supernatural: vampires; creating monsters  Classic Examples: 

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Dracula Frankenstein Anything by Poe

ROMANTIC LITERATURE  Poetry: imitative of British: Bryant,

Longfellow, Holmes  Essays: new unique ideas: Thoreau, Emerson  Short Stories: become a legitimate gnere: Poe, Hawthorne  Adventure Novels: idealizes Nature and frontier life: Cooper

OVERALL SIGNIFICANCE  America’s literary, intellectual, cultural

“Declaration of Independence”  Now producing unique, authoritative, timeless ideas and literature for the first time  The final escape from British influences other that the political: no more imitating British forms and ideas  We have matured and gained confidence to do our own thing as proven by the great American Romantics