ROMANTICISM

(end of 18th century/first part of 19th century) romantic = extravagant, unreal (17th century) something connected with feelings and emotions (18th century) EMOTIONS VS REASON (in opposition to the Enlightenment)

CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Voltaire, Rousseau: importance of nature, man seen as a natural being corrupted by civilisation Sturm und Drang: stress on the expression of feelings opposed to the rational experience

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

American Revolution (1775/1783) French Revolution (1789/1799) Industrial Revolution

CONSEQUENCES

Development of democratic ideals of freedom, equality Social changes: shifting of population from rural areas of the south to the midlands and the north (coal fields) Poverty, concentration of people in slums, exploitation of women and childrens work

ENGLISH ROMANTICISM Romantic poetry (Poetry ideal vehicle, best expression of feelings and emotions)

First generation: Wordsworth and Coleridge

Second generation: Byron, Shelley, Keats

Blake: isolated figure 1. Romantic fiction

Gothic novel: Mary Shelley Frankenstein Historical novel: Walter Scott Novel of manners: Jane Austen

FEATURES AND THEMES

Poet as a prophet, divinely inspired, endowed with the gift of imagination (capable of going beyond the surface of things and of feeling the inner reality of things, able to modify and recreate the world around him) Imagination: important human faculty, able to express the awakening of the individual Individualism: emphasis on the individual Non conformity to society: isolation in nature - revolt - exile Nature seen as opposed to the squalor and ugliness of the industrialised world (some poets devoted to represent its beauty, and a sense of communion between man and nature; others attracted to the supernatural and irrational aspects of life) Child seen as a pure and uncorrupted, still endowed with imagination, closer to God Childhood seen as an ideal state of nature