Romantic Era Background

Where did the Romantic era begin?

in western Europe → spread all over the world

When is the romantic era said to have begun and ended?

Began around French Revolution, ended around the resulting parliamentary reform; shortest major British Literature Era

what were topical events during the age of reason and the romantic era?

American Revolution, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, napoleonic wars, and reforms to british government

What was The Marais Paris?

a book by Jean Jacques Rousseau about raising children that is against the oppressive world of adults and places emphasis on child’s spontaneity and innocence; childhood as seed of imagination

Who was Thomas Chatterton?

a poet who died by suicide because no one would publish his poetry → became an emblem of the idea of a sensitive, doomed person

How did religion influence Romanticism?

Romantic heroes viewed as martyrs for their art, a mystery to all but a few but understand them; noble, doomed artists; adopted ideas of higher power/God without commiting officially to a religion

Effect of a published romantic love story?

Main guy kills himself because his love interest is already married; his impulsivity and impracticality is admired, and it is declared the greatest work in Europe by Napoleon

What is ‘to be romantic’?

to have sympathy for madness and hold a vengeful attitude toward claims of logical and scientific superiority

who was William Wordsworth?

wrote some of the greatest poems in the English language; wrote about the natural world; housed an abiding hatred for industrial and mechanical things; to be a romantic leader is to prefer nature over industry; idealist and liberal who supported democracy; supported French revolution until the September massacre disillusioned him

What is the significance of Thomas Kole’s painting, Niagara Falls?

it shows nature at its most dignified state and goes in search of emotions surrounding religion without believing in God; search for freedom and power that transcends competitive city and working life; make viewers feel small compared to nature

Literary goals and effects of Romantic era?

newfound appreciation of the imagination and attempts to reach the sublime; reaction against the constraints on creativity imposed by previous excessive concern with reason; look with fresh curiosity into the workings of their own minds; lyric poetry lent itself well to these feelings; early development of the novel

What caused the romantic era?

world changing fast → a need for heightened individuality and creativity to take advantage of new opportunities; attempts to rise above the dehumanizing effects of mechanization and social displacement

What is romanticism?

a reaction against emphasis on societal improvement and logic

What is the age of reason?

A period in which reason and logic were valued over puritanical tradition, leading to less fiction generation; industrialization began, and British imperialism begins in Africa and India; Scotland and England unite into Great Britain

Literary must-know of Age of Reason?

Lit tended toward refinement + elegance BUT ALSO carping and ridicule; golden age of Brit satire = exposing and denouncing vice and folly (self-serving, ambitious, egotistical, desirous behavior), holding them up to derision; focus on reason and objectivity; first novel written in English in 1719: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Historical must-know for Age of reason?

needed time to re-establish order after the English Civil War (1640s)

Who was Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

A romantic poet who helped Wordsworth publish Lyrical Ballads, kicking off the romantic era; also wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Who are the 6 main poets of the Romantic era?

(Gen 1) William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (Gen 2) Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and George Gordon, Lord Byron

Effects of England’s loss of France and 13 Colonies?

economic, political, egotistical losses; seen as the “overthrow of an anointed king by democratic rabble”

What happened at the end of the twenty-two year war vs. Napoleon?

British won

mind is naturally the what of nature according to wordsworth?

a mirror

Poet definition?

A man speaking to men in order to accomplish something else

How do we hear lyrical poetry?

overhearing it; more personal subjects

Lyric poetry asks us what?

to imagine that the speaking is taking place & consider what kind of speaking; reason for development of lyric poetry bc novel/prose fiction took over storytelling job of poetry

Why were romantic poets also called nature poets?

talk abt. destroying nature through pollution; nature doesn’t die, it’s the agent of death, focus on sublime

Romantic definition (historical)?

fascination with youth and innocence; cyclical societal development when ppl. need idealism; stronger awareness and adaptation to change