Transcript European Contacts & Conquests

Romantic Reactions
Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.
GSTR 221-O: West. Trads. II
Berea College
Spring 2004
WHAT IS ROMANTICISM?
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Artistic and literary
movement, c. late
1700s-early 1800s
Idealizes the natural,
devalues the artificial
Exalts the emotional,
criticizes the rational
Celebrates the
individual, scorns the
communal
Views art as expression
of artist’s inner vision
ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM
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Arises in response to:
1.
Classicism (artistic and
literary taste for restraint,
rationality, and revival of
Greco-Roman forms)
Deism (Enlightenment
belief in “clockmaker God”
remote from mechanistic
cosmos)
Industrialization
(alienation from natural
world through
mechanization of society)
2.
3.
THE ROMANTIC HERO(-INE)
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Individual struggling
against the world
Guided by inner feelings,
not social approval or
rational analysis
Misunderstood and/or
rejected by society
Attracted to the exotic, the
antique, and the unusual:
Non-Western cultures
Medieval European culture
Altered states
Occult spiritualities
NATURE AND SPIRIT IN
ROMANTICISM
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Nature as moral guide: “One
impulse from a vernal wood
/ May teach you more of
man / Of Moral Evil and of
good / Than all the sages
can” (William Wordsworth)
Nature as God – pantheism:
“Anyone seeking God will
find him anywhere”
(Friedrich Novalis)
Nature as destiny –
nationalism: “The most
natural state… is… one
people, with a national
character of its own.”
(Johann Gottfried von
Herder)
THE VISUAL IMPACT OF
ROMANTICISM
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1.
2.
3.
General abandonment of
precision, realism, and
classical forms
Altered states, dreams, and
mystical experiences seen
as sources of artistic
inspiration
Use of medieval
architectural forms
Important Romantic artists
include:
Caspar David Friedrich (17741840)
Joseph M. W. Turner (17751851)
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
THE MUSICAL IMPACT OF
ROMANTICISM
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1.
2.
3.
Experimentation with
fluctuating tempos,
inconsistent dynamics, and
dissonant harmonies
Idealization of composer or
performer’s work as
revelation of inner life
Isolation of musical
performance from contexts
of worship and dance
Important Romantic
musicians include:
Ludwig van Beethoven (17701827)
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
MARY SHELLEY (1797-1851)
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Born in England to feminist
Mary Wollstonecraft (17591797) and anarchist William
Godwin (1756-1836)
At 16, marries radical writer
Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822), who drowns nine
years later
At 19, inspired by German
ghost stories, writes
Frankenstein, or The Modern
Prometheus
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Dies at 54 as the Great
Exhibition of 1851 celebrates
triumphs of science and
technology
THE ROMANTIC LEGACY
IN THE WEST
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Idealization of natural
environment, “primitive”
peoples, ethnic roots, etc.
Art, music, or literature
seen as completely original
expression of individual
experiences or feelings
Abandonment of realism in
visual arts
View of creative individuals
as alienated from society
Revival of emotional
expressions of religious
belief and practice
Antagonism between arts
and sciences