The Romantics HISTORY: -The entire period is known as the "Age of Revolutions" - relating to the American Revolution (1786), French Revolution (1789), and the Industrial Revolution.
-Was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and against the scientific rationalization of nature.
-Rejects Neoclassicism: literary movement in England during the late 17th and 18th centuries which sought to revive the artistic ideals of classical Greece and Rome. It was characterized by emotional restraint, order, logic, clarity, and dignity. It promoted intellect over reason and wit over imagination.
-Many argue that the "Lyrical Ballads" published by William Woodsworth and Samuel Coleridge in 1789 marked the beginning of the Romantic Period.
MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS:
1) Imagination: our ultimate "shaping" of creative power,known as the ultimate synthesizing faculty, enabling humans to reconcile differences and opposites in the world of appearance.
2) Nature: Constructed by a divine imagination, in an emblematic language. Nature is a healing power, a source of subject and image, a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization.
3) Emotion: Emphasis on intuition, instinct, and feeling were important. Romantics generally called for greater attention to emotion as a necessary supplement to purely logic or reason.
4) Individualism: Considered important for people of the Romantic Period to think on their own - caused a reering away from the norms of civilization.
5)The Supernatural: Fascination with the mysterious and unreal lead to the development of Gothic Romance which later became popular.
MAJOR ROMANTIC ARTISTS AND WRITERS: Artists: Caspar David Friedrich John Constable J.M.W Turner William Blake Writers: -Samuel Coleridge: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
-William Woodsworth: "Lines Written a Few Miles from Tintern Abbey"
-William Blake: "Songs of Innocence"
-Mary Wollstonecraft: "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" ("The Romantics" n. p.).