Romanticism

In the case of the Renaissance, the area of origin and the area of the central productions of the period are the same: Italy. When, however, we come to Romanticism, a different situation ensues: the start of the movement is found in one country (Germany), whereas the most notable productions (English Romantic poetry) are found in another. In fact, the fame of the English Romantic poets has so overshadowed the rest of the Romantic movement (which is considerable), that, for many people, Romanticism means little more than 19th century English poetry.

This is, however, far from the case: as stated, the Romantic movement, which began in Germany, spread all across Europe and the U.S., producing a bewildering variety of splendid works. As I've tried to emphasize in previous lectures, background is an essential element in understanding the thought and literature of any period; so here, again, we need at least some familiarity with the social context in order to more fully appreciate what we are dealing with.

With this in mind, then, I present the following notes on the German Romantics, proceed to a brief glance at the European and American developments, and finish with an outline of the English Romantics themselves.

The primary source of inspiration for the German Romantics in their rebellion against Enlightenment values was Rousseau. The French philosopher's emphasis on the individual (as opposed to, what would come to be called, utilitarianism), and emotional expression (as opposed to analytical reasoning) found ready acceptance with a certain group of German artists who were dissatisfied with the mechanistic and didactic character of Enlightenment social and aesthetic theories.

The notable productions of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress", as this period of German Romanticism later came to be labeled) movement fall mostly between 1770 - 1790, although German work in this style will continue right up till the end of the Romanticism (c. 1850). Three of the key writes are 1) Johann Goethe (1749 - 1832), whose "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774) is a classic of its type (it should be noted that soon after this Goethe abandoned Romanticism in favor of his own brand of classicism), 2) Johann Schiller (1759 - 1805), author of the widely popular drama "The Robbers" (1791), and 3) the poet Heinrich Heine (1796 - 1856), who, incidentally, called himself "the last Romantic".

With Germany then as the center, Romanticism spread out all across Europe and even to the U.S. We do not have the time, quite unfortunately, to give anything like a proper survey of the many outstanding works produced in this multitude of countries; what follows is the barest of possible outlines.

France

Francois-Rene Chateaubriand Genius of Christianity (novel) 1802

Victor Hugo Les Miserables (novel) 1862

George Sand Indiana (novel) 1832

Italy

Alessandro Manzoni The Betrothed (novel) 1827

Giacomo Leopardi Various poetic works

Russia

Aleksander Pushkin Various poetic works

Mikhail Lermontov A Hero of Our Time (novel) 1840

U.S.

Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of Usher (short story) 1840

Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (novel) 1850

Herman Melville Moby Dick (novel) 1851

Between the Germans, the rest of Europe, and the Americans, all the major forms of literature (i.e., poetry, short story, novel, and drama) find expression in the Romantic form (and I have omitted any discussion of the architectural, painting, and musical developments!). When, however, we turn our attention to English Romanticism we immediately notice that by far the majority of works are poetic; the single exception being the novels of Sir Walter Scott (who also wrote poetry). Thus, while far more extensive in influence, English Romanticism is far more restrictive in scope.

Literary histories generally, and conveniently, date the start of English Romanticism with the publication of "Lyrical Ballads" (1798), and close the chapter with the death of Sir Walter Scott (1832). The actual situation, however, rather inconveniently, begins slowly with the work and influence of Blake and Burns, peaks during the "official period", then lingers on till about 1850.

There has been some confusion in the attempt to classify the English Romantics (why do I imagine they would find this funny?). First, and most generally, while there are indeed certain underlying similarities (namely, I would say, the influence of the German Romantics and Rousseau), the variety of shapes these similarities take is surprisingly diverse. Second, there is the long-standing Lake School fallacy (nothing of the sort, as De Quincey himself tells us, ever existed).

While not pronouncing it as final, in my experience, the following basic classification is, on the one hand, generally acceptable to scholars, and, on the other, still serviceable to students. For each of the poets I have appended the title of a short representative work.

I. The Pre-Romantics

William Blake (1757 - 1827) The Tyger

Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) A Red, Red, Rose

II. First Generation Romantics

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey

Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)

Samuel T. Coleridge (1772 - 1834) Kubla Khan

III. Second Generation Romantics

George G. Byron (1788 - 1824) She Walks in Beauty

Percy B. Shelley (1792 - 1822) Ode to the West Wind

John Keats (1795 - 1821) Ode to a Nightingale

With Romanticism we have the first truly international artistic-social movement. Regarding English literature, "Lyrical Ballads", jointly authored by Wordsworth and Coleridge, is the key work of the period; the preface of this book, by Wordsworth, is also valuable as a concise statement of English Romantic ideals. Further, it should be noted that the American writers Emerson and Thoreau are closely connected to Wordsworth in their worship of Nature. Coleridge's main poem is "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; Shelley's "Don Juan". Lastly, from 1800 forward we begin to have translations of the ancient Oriental classics (namely, Daoist, Buddhist, and Hindu works) in the various European vernaculars (circa 1700 we see the same but in Latin): the effects of these works on western culture, the beginning of which is through the Romantics, has been, and continues to be, considerable.

There is a tremendous amount of Romantic material on the Net; use any search engine to get started. Here are a few gems I came across.

1. http://www.englishhistory.net/byron.html.

2. http://www.john-keats.com/index_ie.htm

3.http://www.thomaslovepeacock.net/defence.html For Shelley's essay "A Defence of Poetry".