Romanticism: Key Concepts and Historical Impact

Overview

• Romanticism is a significant historical event, not a war or political event, but a change in mindset and feeling.
• Originated in Western Europe in the mid-18th century, spreading worldwide.
• A response to modernity: industrialization, urbanization, secularization, and consumerism.
• Influences perceptions of nature, children, love, sex, money, and work.

Key Moments in Romanticism

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Emile (1762)

• Publication focused on child rearing, emphasizing natural goodness and creativity of children.
• Critiqued the rational, planned, bureaucratic adult world.
• Advocated for freedom from tradition and the innocence of children.

Thomas Chatterton (1770)

• Young poet who became a symbol of the sensitive, doomed artist.
• Represents the Romantic hero, misunderstood by a rational world.

Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)

• A pivotal romantic love story highlighting passionate but impractical love.
• Encouraged following one's heart over rational concerns.
• Impacted how love was perceived, emphasizing emotions over societal norms.

Francisco Goya: The Sleep of Reason Brings Out Monsters (1798)

• Examined the limits of reason and the power of irrationality.
• Romanticism's sympathy for madness and critique of rational triumph.

William Wordsworth (1799)

• Celebrated nature in poetry, opposing industrialization and mechanical life.
• Advocated for the natural over the technological.

Thomas Cole: Painting of Niagara Falls (1829)

• Depicted vast landscapes, highlighting man's insignificance compared to nature.
• Romantic search for emotions in nature, similar to religious feelings.

Augustus Pugin: New British Parliament (1847)

• Designed to look medieval, reflecting nostalgia for pre-industrial past.
• Romanticism's interest in medieval noble ideals over modern industrial values.

Charles Baudelaire: The Flaneur (1863)

• Celebrated the flaneur, a leisurely observer of city life, contrary to capitalist productivity.

Paul Gauguin: Journey to Tahiti (1891)

• Sought freedom from civilization, exemplifying Romantic escape to untainted nature.

Romanticism's Lasting Impact

• Romanticism champions the irrational, exotic, and naive.
• Critiqued for its adolescent tendencies but offers a counterbalance to modernity's coldness.
• Future potential to merge Romanticism's strengths with modernity for a balanced era of maturity.