Romance Day 1 - Romantic Period

Context

• reaction to neoclassical (brains over heart)

• people wanted to have more emotion, not just think about life, FEEL it

• complexities of human existence

• industrial revolution has society changing rapidly

  • is all this change really that good for the world?

• huge scientific discoveries, like Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin

  • people’s views on the world are beginning to be challenged

  • mixing scientific hard facts with more fluid feelings in human experience

• colonialism and exploration

literature in the romantic period

• diaries in poetry form

  • tackling big topics that are shared among all humans (love, loss, etc.)

  • able to describe feelings of awe and transcendence, like the feeling when you look over the grand canyon

• novels

  • gothic writers for suspense and horror, historical fiction almost like a time machine for the reader

• drama

• themes and motifs:

  • nature - pure, beautiful and deeply meaningful

  • emotion and individualism - breaking out of your little box you’ve been placed in by society

  • imagination - anything is possible

  • love, passion, longing - all different forms, YEARNING, inspires people

  • social and political criticism - able to speak out/break the silence and make/incite change

significance and impact on the world

• celebration of individualism and personal expression, still seen today, everyone has something important to add

• nature - something bigger than themselves, connection to the planet

• human psychology - becoming more understanding of their minds

• heavily influences all literature and art that have come after it

relevance (why should i care?)

• backstage pass to human experience

• how we understand ourselves and our place in the world

• origins of self awareness, people realize who they are and what role they play in society

• responding to the challenges around them in the world, influencing people around them with art

• complexities of human psyche

• celebration of the simple things that fast paced society makes us forget

how is Frankenstein romantic?

• intense imagery

• reflections on current science

• poetry referenced

• speaks highly of the beauty of nature - appreciates it well

• heavily references fate

  • through-line for all literature, back and forth between you CAN control your destiny and you CAN’T control it

• pretty much the poster child of literature in the romantic period

  • encapsulates almost all important themes of romantic period

    • exploration of nature - super vivid pictures (like you’re there yourself), place of solace and spiritual renewal

      • when you mess with nature, nature messes back

      • contrasting the industrialized and artificial human world with the beauty of nature uncontrolled

    • sublime - confronting the unknown and supernatural (the creature, both grotesque and tragic) both fear and beauty explored

      • horror and empathy are SO closely linked

      • the whole human mind is linked closer than we think

    • exploration of emotions and individual experience

      • dangers of unchecked passion

      • mayyyyybe don’t play god

      • the creature didn’t ask to be created and then he is immediately shunned for how he looks and left alone in a world he knows nothing about

      • sometimes the real monster isn’t the one who looks like one, and the “monster” is just an innocent victim

    • power of the supernatural

      • if you’re gonna play god, you have to realize the consequences

      • trying to control the uncontrollable wont turn out well

    • social criticism

      • critique of oppressive social structure (industrial revolution), values and norms are dangerous

      • social rejection and discrimination is unfair

  • successfully mixes it all together, fully representing all of the period

framing devices

• one story inside of another, a story is presented within another narrative framework (subplot) (story nesting doll)

• functions: contextualization, multiple perspectives, unreliable narration, thematic enhancement, enhancing narrative structure (like adding layers to a cake)

• epistolary narration - peek into the character’s inbox, their correspondence and how they describe what they have experienced

  • additional functions: adds intimacy and authenticity to the character, realism and believability, exploration of time and distance (watching povs change and perspectives travel), unique narrative structure (the plot is like solving a puzzle)

ive already laid my path, now i have to walk it