Assignment#1

Mahnoor Fatima.
ID: 13288.
Date: 28th Nov 18.

Q: What is Romanticism? What are the characteristics of Romanticism? Name any

5 movements under Romanticism and describe each of them.
Romanticism
The period from the late 1700’s to the mid 1800’s century is generally refers to as
the era of romanticism in literature. Romanticism was generally developed as a
movement in literature and fine arts against classicism. During the romantic
movement most writers were dissatisfied and unhappy with the world which
seemed commercial and inhuman and emphasis more on the civilized and
standardized modes of life. Romantics were in revolt against the artificial ideas of
good form. To escape from the modern life, romantics turned their enthusiasm to
remote and faraway places, the medieval past, folklore and legends, and nature
and towards the common people. Therefore, it was characterized as glorification
of all the past and nature preferring the medieval period rather than classicism as
middle age period seemed harmonious and peaceful to them.

Characteristics:
Some of the main characteristics of the romanticism are as follows:
 Emphasis for individuality; freedom and liberty for the individual including
the right to express thought and believed that man was born to think for
himself.
 Romantics were against the social conventions, against the progress of
burgeois civilization which driven whole section of population to poverty.
 It emphasis more on passion rather than reasons & imagination and
intuition rather than logic & facts.
  The believe that people are naturally good, but have been corrupted by the
institutions of civilization.
 Preoccupation with aesthetic and spiritual values of external nature.
 Their motto was: “Close to Nature and from Nature to God”, because they
believed that religion put man at peace with the world.
 Found its expression in various areas of art (literature, painting, music) is
necessary to examine and learn in a straight dissoluble connection with a
deep social, historical and political improvements.
 Romantics were attracted to rebellion and revolution, especially concerned
with human rights, individualism, freedom from oppression.

Sub-Movements of Romanticism:
1 Realism.
2 Naturalism.
3 Surrealism
4 Expressionism.
5 Symbolism.

Realism
 The main idea of realism was to portray life the way it is, it has been the
revolt against classicism which was being more rational and standardized
and against romantics which portrays life as more emotional and satisfying
than it really was.
 In realism, Characters were more important than the actual plot and action.
 Realism aims at an accurate and unsentimental representation of social
problems and issues.

Naturalism
 Literary naturalism emphasizes on observation and to apply scientific
theory and method to imaginative and fictional portrayal of life.
 Naturalist believe that Knowledge is obtained through the senses and that
the role of the writer is to report precisely what they observe.
  Naturalists were more pessimistic than realists and were more focused on
the exclusion of supernatural from the physical world.
Symbolism
 In symbolism, object, person or situation has hidden meanings other than
its actual or literal meaning.
 In symbolism, symbolist used symbols and objects to give a deeper
meaning to the context of the story.
 Symbolist developed the musical arrangements of words experimenting
with existing composition form.

Surrealism
 Surrealism in literature can be characterized as an aesthetic attempt to
connect together reality and the imagination.
 Surrealists seek to overcome the contradictions of the conscious and
unconscious minds by creating unreal or bizarre stories full of contrast and
comparison.
 Surrealism used art as a weapon against the evils and restriction that
surrealists see in society
Expressionism
 Expressionism was a revolution against realism and naturalism that attempt
to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality.
 They tried to portray life as modified and distorted by their personal
interpretation of reality.
 The expressionist believed that the beauty lies in the mind not in the eyes.