We explain to you what the characteristics of Romanticism were, its themes, values and disciplines in which it manifested itself.
Romanticism
Romanticism (1789-1880) It was at the same time an artistic, philosophical, aesthetic, musical and literary movement. It emerged in northern Europe (in Germany and England) at the end of the 18th century, and took a position contrary to the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism dominant at that time.
Furthermore, it was a new way of thinking that soon spread throughout Europe and the entire world. Thus, it forever changed the way we in the West relate to nature, love, art and work.
Heir to important European works and artistic trends such as Sturm und Drang German (“storm and impetus”) or the novels of Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), among others, Romanticism is a crucial movement for understanding the modern history of the West and the world.
So much so that, to some extent, we are all romantics today, because many of the core values of this movement remain alive despite the fact that almost two centuries have passed since its heyday, in the mid-19th century.
The name of the movement is a matter of debate, since it has important links with the French term romanticused in the 16th century to refer to chivalric novels. They were published at that time in the Romance language (while scientific and philosophical treatises were published in Latin or Greek, classical and “serious” languages).
Consequently, the term would be initially associated with the picturesque, the sentimental, what is typical of this type of literature. Perhaps that is why throughout the 19th century different ways of referring to the movement were used in different European languages: romantic or romantic in german, romance and romantic in Spanish.
The important thing today is to understand that romance does not necessarily have to do with erotic romance and love stories, but with a posture towards life that exalts feelings above the logical and rational world proposed by modernity.
Below we will see the main characteristics of Romanticism and detail some of its most notable authors, thinkers and artistic and literary works.
See also: Literary Romanticism
Characteristics of Romanticism
1. Feelings before reason
Romanticism was, above all, a reaction against the cold, rational and millimetric world that the French Enlightenment engendered and that was put into practice with industrialization. Rural time was left behind, with its contemplative nature: the modern world was fast and troubled, with measured time and reason as the supreme value of humanity.
Therefore, Romanticism aspired to recover what was considered a lost or forgotten aspect of the human being: the sentimental. For that reason, Romantic artists exalted the uniqueness of their inner world understanding their work as that of a demiurge or god creator of their own universe, and thinking of themselves as different, unique, original individuals.
For them, instinct and the creative Self had much more value than the universalist considerations of rationalism, which thought of the human being in rather scientific and sociological terms.
That is why romantic works usually represent lonely and long-suffering heroes, trapped in the passion of their inner storm like Goethe's young Werther, whose impossible love with Charlotte leads him to suicide.
2. Childhood as a lost paradise
For romantics, civilization makes human beings sick, since with it we imposed a strict and rational order on ourselves that distanced us from nature and our origins. Therefore, It was necessary to reconnect with that lost nature, represented in its fullness in the figure of the child: the quintessential rebel, naive, pure, not yet corrupted by the banal ambitions of commerce and industry.
Many romantic artists fled industrial civilization towards exotic and natural lands, either on long journeys or in continuous search for a natural refuge, to reconnect with “true” nature. In that sense expressed a certain nostalgia for the rural, for life before the cities.
Others, however, embraced political and revolutionary ideas that defended the inherent goodness of human beings against the corrupting influence of the bourgeois world.
In the romantic imagination the rebel and the tragic hero occupy an important place: those who revolt against the entire society and are misunderstood, branded crazy or sacrificed by the masses, except for those select few who manage to understand the depth and honesty of their struggle. In this, romantic heroes are heirs of the Christian myth.
3. The exaltation of nationalism
Unlike what was proposed by the Enlightenment, which was much more cosmopolitan and universalist, Romanticism was a deeply nationalist movement. His works took from the folklore and rural legends and traditions of each country and defended the unique and original of each culture, its own spirit or Volkgeist.
This led to the exaltation of the golden ages, that is, the past moments of glory and plenitude. European nationalisms were largely a romantic invention.
In this way, the medieval imaginary was recovered, so denigrated by Humanism and the Enlightenment since they associated it with religious obscurantism and superstition, everything opposite to human reason.
The romantics, on the other hand, saw in the Middle Ages a state of greater purity, and rescued numerous stories from yesteryear, such as Arthurian mythology or the Scandinavian sagas, as well as poetic traditions in local languages such as Welsh, Scottish, Galician, etc. In this way they avoided the European Greco-Roman legacy, on which the neoclassicalists focused.
An example of this is novels such as Splendor by Goethe, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley or Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, in addition to paintings such as Lady Godiva by John Collier and the coven and witch flight by Francisco de Goya, among many others. So are the musical compositions of the Italian Giacomo Puccini and the german Max Bruchin which they took up the popular legacy.
4. Aesthetic rebellion
By valuing originality so much, the romantics necessarily had to be rebellious against traditional norms and prevailing styles in art.
On the one hand, that meant stopping copying traditional classical motifs, and on the other, breaking with the idea of the finished and total work, appreciating instead the unfinished, open works, which allowed us to appreciate what was unique and personal in each artist. The canons and schools did not interest them as much as the power of subjective expression.
Creative freedom, in that sense, was the most important thing. The romantic poets broke with the rigor of the meter and allowed themselves freer verses; They mixed prose and verse as they pleased; They broke with the three Aristotelian unities of the play; They rescued medieval genres such as ballads and romance; and in music they embraced improvisation.
5. Return to Christianity and the experience of God
The imagery of Romanticism had firm Christian roots, unlike the Enlightenment. Many of his paintings deal with biblical or New Testament scenes and in his lyric works and novels the theme of the sacrifice of the messiah is continually present.
Poets such as the German Novalis (1772-1801) wrote to his dead beloved (another of the great motifs of the Romantic poets), comparing his love for her with the love for Jesus, or describing her in terms similar to those of the Virgin. Maria.
On the other hand, the Romantics were great admirers of landscapes, and their experience of the natural world was sublime, almost mystical, similar to that proposed in previous times when faced with a miracle or divine revelation. In a way, worshiped God outside the churches, in the natural beauty since at the same time it was a secular movement, in no way related to religious morality and the Catholic Church.
Romantic landscapes, thus, were abundant in painting and sought to exalt emotions, rather than copy a real, topographical perspective. The picturesque and the sublime were what interested them most.
Later, this gave rise to the idea of flaneur or the pedestrian, the individual who wanders through modern cities without haste, simply observing, and thereby distancing himself from the troubled life of the bourgeoisie. The French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) wrote many verses about it.
6. The appreciation of fantasy and the grotesque
Finally, Romanticism was not a precious and perfectionist movement, with symmetrical and balanced works, but rather it valued passion and drive above all else. Nor were they interested in a realistic perspective that addressed social issues. That's why, In his imagination, fantasy, the grotesque, the horrendous and the supernatural have a place and in them you can also appreciate the sublime.
Monsters and ghosts, the sinister and the demonic, abound in romantic novels, and from there the so-called Gothic literature was born in the 19th century. Novels and stories such as those of Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Lord Byron and John William Polidori are examples of this, as is the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, in which vampires, prostitutes and even syphilis abound, or that of the British John Keats and William Blake.
Continue with: Symbolism
References
- “Romanticism” on Wikipedia.
- “Romanticism (1790-1880)” in HA!
- “Romanticism” at The MET (USA).
- “Romanticism (art)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- “History of ideas – Romanticism” (video) in The School of Life.
