The Culture of Rebellion in the Romantic Era
Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830. One of Delacroix’s best known works, the painting depicts a bare-breasted Liberty leading Parisians of mixed social and economic backgrounds into battle. The Romantic era is typically noted for its intense political, social, and cultural upheavals. The period is conventionally marked as beginning with the French Revolution in 1789 and ending with the passing of the Great Reform Bill in 1832, occurrences which exemplify the political zeal of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries as well as the resultant changes brought about in society. Events initially external to England, such as the French Revolution, are internalized in Romantic literature as a part of the debates on more relevant, internal issues in English politics, such as the prededing American Revolution and the imminent Irish Uprising of 1798. One key area in which the influence of the French Revolution manifests itself is in the satiric poetry of the period.
What are the characteristic features of poetry during the Romantic Movement? | eNotes
Characteristics of Romantic Poetry There are many angles and point-of-views from which one can study romantic poetry. The most of important characteristic of this form of poetry is imagination. 1)ImaginationIn the words of William Wordsworth, 'poetry is the first and last of all knowledge'. 2)EmotionsWhen it comes to romantic poetry, reason and logic take a backseat. 3)NatureA romantic poet can let loose his/her imagination in the process of interpreting natural phenomena. 4)Pastoral LifeThe pastoral life, culture and traditions are mentioned on a frequent basis in romantic poetry. 5)SymbolismIt is a way of expressing so much in so little. 6)IndividualismIt is one of the important romantic poetry characteristics. The use of romanticism in literature appeals to our dreamy inner-self.
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By the late 18th century in France and Germany, literary taste began to turn from classical and neoclassical conventions. The generation of revolution and wars, of stress and upheaval had produced doubts on the security of the age of reason. Doubts and pessimism now challenged the hope and optimism of the 18th century. Men felt a deepened concern for the metaphysical problems of existence, death, and eternity. It was in this setting that Romanticism was born. Origins Romanticism was a literary movement that swept through virtually every country of Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to 1870. The Romantic Style The term romantic first appeared in 18th-century English and originally meant "romancelike"-that is, resembling the fanciful character of medieval romances. Romanticism stresses on self-expression and individual uniqueness that does not lend itself to precise definition.
terms & themes
"Romanticism" is a period, movement, style, or genre in literature, music, and other arts starting in the late 1700s and flourishing through the early to mid 1800s, a time when the modern mass culture in which we now live first took form following the establishment of modern social systems during the Enlightenment or Age of Reason: the rise of nation-states as defining social and geographic entities increasing geographic and social mobility, with more people moving to cities & the growth of a literate middle class, new technologies dependent on power from fossil fuels (trains, steamships, industrial printing) longer life-spans and rising standards of living enable ideas or values including individualism, imagination. idealization of childhood, families, love, nature, and the past. The Romantic era rises from the new wealth, stability, and sense of progress created by the preceding Enlightenment. heroic individualism; the individual separate from the masses nostalgia for the past
