The romantic movement and gothic literature

The Romantic Movement and Gothic Literature... 1660-1790An intellectual movement in France and other parts of Europe that emphasized the importance of reason, progress, and liberty.. 166

The Romantic

Movement and Gothic Literature

Enlightenment (c 1660-1790)

An intellectual movement in France and other parts of Europe that emphasized the importance of reason, progress,

and liberty The Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age

of Reason, is primarily associated with nonfiction writing,

such as essays and philosophical treatises Major Enlightenment writers include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and René Descartes

Neoclassicism (c 1660-1798)

A literary movement, inspired by the rediscovery of classical works of ancient Greece and Rome, that emphasized balance, restraint, and order Neoclassicism roughly coincided with the Enlightenment, which espoused reason over passion Notable neoclassical writers include Edmund Burke, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift

Sturm und Drang (1770s)

German for “storm and stress,” this brief German literary movement advocated passionate individuality in the face of

Neoclassical rationalism and restraint Goethe’s The Sorrows of Y oung W erther is the most enduring work of

this movement, which greatly influenced the Romantic

Movement.

Romanticism (c 1798-1832)

A literary and artistic movement that reacted against the restraint and universalism of the Enlightenment The Romantics celebrated spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the purity of nature Notable English Romantic writers include Jane Austen, William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth Prominent figures in the American romantic movement include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, Williams Cullen Bryant, and John Greenleaf Whittier

Transcendentalism (c 1835-1860 )

An American philosophical and spiritual movement, based

in New England, that focused on the primary of the

individual conscience and rejected materialism in favor of

closer communion with nature Ralph Waldo Emerson’s

“Self-Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s W alden are

famous transcendentalist works

Five Main Romantic Themes

in American Literature

 Intuition (“the truth of the heart”) is more

trustworthy than reason.

 To express deeply felt experience is more valuable

than to elaborate universal principles.

 The individual is at the center of life and God is at

the center of the individual.

 Nature is an array of physical symbols from which

knowledge of the supernatural can be intuited.

 We should aspire to the ideal –to change what is to

what ought to be.

Pre-Raphaelites (c 1848-1870)

The literary arm of an artistic movement that drew inspiration from Italian artists working before Raphael (1483-1520) The Pre-Raphaelites combined sensuousness and religiosity through archaic poetic forms and medieval settings William Morris, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Charles Swinburne were leading poets in the movement

Romantic Characteristics

1 Emphasis upon subjective emotion and spontaneity

2 Love of one’s own national literature and literary forms

3 Wild, exuberant writing dealing with unexpected, exotic

and foreign topics

4 Objects contrasted with each other and arranged

asymmetrically

5 Love of the country and nature

One of Romanticism’s key ideas is the assertion of nationalism, which became a central theme of Romantic art and political philosophy From the earliest parts of the movement, with their focus on development of national languages and folklore, and the importance of local customs and traditions, to the movements which would redraw the map of Europe and lead to calls for self-determination of nationalities, nationalism was one of the key vehicles of Romanticism, its role, expression and meaning

Neoclassical Elements

Formal essay

History bookRhyming couplet

DisciplineLawTraditionAristocratsConservatives

Even-tempered

ReservedFormal portraits

Romantic Elements

Mythical story

OdeSupernatural taleDemocracyFreedomRevolutionCommonersLiberalsMelancholicOutspokenLandscapes

True wit is Nature to advantage

drest,What oft was thought, but ne’er so

well expressed;

Something whose truth convinced at

sight we find,That gives us back the image of our

mind

-Alexander Pope,

A n Essay on Criticism, Part 2,

11 297-300

…Then a wish,

My last and favourite aspiration,

mountsWith yearning tow’rds some philo-

verseThoughtfully fitted to the Orphean

lyre…

-William Wordsworth,

The prelude

Book 1, 11 227-233

The Fighting Téméaire

J.M.W Turner

The White Horses

John Constable - 1819

Liberty Leading the People

Eugene Delacroix

The Voyage of Life - Childhood

Thomas Cole

The Voyage of Life - Youth

Thomas Cole

The Voyage of Life - Manhood

Thomas Cole

The Voyage of Life - Old Age

Thomas Cole

Gothic Literature

 It was an offshoot of Romantic Literature.

 Gothic Literature was the predecessor of modern

horror movies in both theme and style.

 Gothic Literature put a spin on the Romantic

idea of nature worship and nature imagery

Along with nature having the power of healing, Gothic writers gave nature the power of

destruction Frankenstein is full of the harsh

reality of nature Many storms arise in the

novel, including storms the night the Creature comes to life.

 The most common feature of Gothic Literature is

the indication of mood through the weather

The Byronic Hero

 This idea is based on the personality of George Gordon, Lord

Byron who was a stormy, sensitive, fiercely proud man.

 The Byronic Hero is a mysterious, somewhat exotic creature

whose passionate intensity cuts him off from others.

 They suffer from profound yearnings that are beyond the

comprehension of lesser persons

 Aware of their superiority, these Byronic Heroes are

frequently aloof, sometimes sullen

 They show disdain for the petty regulations of society.

 They are sometimes imprisoned or become voluntary exiles,

living examples of the restless spirit of the Romantics.