(1) “The movement known as the Enlightenment included writers living at different times in carious countries. Its early exponents, the philosophes, popularized the rationalism and scientific ideas of the 17th century. They exposed contemporary social and political abuses and argued that reform was necessary and possible.” (The Heritage of World Civilizations). This led to tremendous rethinking of religious and moral matters as well as scientific theory.
Between the time period 1800 to 1850, Romanticism was a literature style that many writers wrote about that focused on the celebration of nature, beauty, and imagination, supernatural elements and many other characteristics. However, there was a transition from Romanticism to a new literature movement called Realism due to the Civil War. It began when the North and South had cultural differences that divided them; while the North’s economy was based on industrialization and trade, the South was highly dependent on agriculture and slaves. The contrast between the two sides deepened when Abraham Lincoln promised that he will emancipate slavery. After the long battle, many writers realized that Romanticism did not suit their taste and decided that they preferred to write more honestly and realistically to demonstrate the hardships people faced during the war. One example of a Realistic writer is Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass retells the experiences he had when he was a slave; although he was mentally and physically damaged, he was able to endure the oppression he encountered. Similarly, Letter to Sarah Ballou is a letter from Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife notifying her that even though his love for her is endless, his love for his country is far more important. Even though he decides to continue to fight in the war, he misses his family dearly but is able to push through these difficult times. Lastly, in Abraham
The transition from the Classical period to the era of Romanticism affected all aspects of creative and performing arts. Romanticism was a Western cultural movement that started in the early 1800s. The movement affected all forms of art including literature, visual art and music.
The way we perceive history are through the eyes of those who write it, but we also have no knowledge if they’re being biased or not. In Frances G. Couvares’ work Interpretations of American History, he talks about historiography and how historians write history. This essay will talk about the providential, the rationalist, the nationalist, and the the professional, the four stages that helped shape how we write American history and the importance it has to historiography.
During the early and mid-19th Century, a literature type known as Romanticism evolved in Europe, creating many works of poetry and literature that are still in use presently. Through Romanticism, poets wanted to shed the light on the beauties or the darknesses of human nature and humans themselves with different characteristics that define Romanticism. ¨Dr. Heideggar´s Experiment¨ by Nathaniel Hawthorne and a short story, Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson both present the Romantic Characteristic of preferring youthful innocence over educated sophistication. Both pieces advocate a preference for youth, but ¨Dr. Heideggar´s Experiment¨- a dark romantic literary piece- uses greed and corruption to show that if given a chance to relive a past, the same corrupt mistakes will be made, corrupting innocence
As Americans evolved from Classicism to Romanticism there was much change, especially in literature. Classicism prioritized the idea of reason and valued “clarity, order, and balance” (Hodgins, 119). In contrast, Romanticism emphasized “importance upon the emotions and upon the individual” (Hodgins, 119). Early American Romanticists shared several central attitudes and ideas, including a concern with the “deeper” aspects of the human psychology that lie beyond rational awareness, and a tendency to value individualism over all social forms or systems.
Romanticism was a movement during the late 18th century that encouraged imagination, exploration, individualism, and emotion. From it derived Transcendentalism, one of the first movements to originate from America and which bore the first American philosophers. These movements are often present in many pieces of American literature and this is no exception in Jon Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild. The historic account retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless, who adopts the pseudonym Alexander Supertramp and takes to the road, only to die of starvation in Alaska. On the surface it appears to be cautionary tale, but Krakauer literally retraces McCandless’ steps, talking to the people who Chris spoke with and even traveling to Chris’ final resting place.
Romanticism was a movement in the 18th century that was a response to the Enlightenment, which was the movement that stated that everything should be based on facts and reason. Romanticism stated that feelings and emotions are just as important as reason and logic in understanding everything in the world (Romanticism Movement, n.d.). Romanticism strongly affected the writings of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and can be seen in the poems “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim” (Whitman, 1867), “O Me! O Life!” (Whitman, 1867), and “Tell all the truth but tell it Slant” (Dickinson, n.d.).
The romantic movement swept across Europe during the nineteenth century. Poets, artists, and musicians at this time encompassed romanticism’s characteristics into their works. These documents will help to gain a better understanding of the characteristics through analysis and explanation. Romanticism is significant due to its characteristics of emotional exuberance, unrestrained imagination, and spontaneity in both artistic and personal life.
Romanticisim was a movement in literature and art which lasted from about 1789-1870 in Europe, North America and Latin America .The rising of Romanticism is associated with the Industrial Revolution, or with the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.Especially, the Industrial Revolution led to some technological and socio-economic-cultural changes at that period in the Europe. As a matter of fact that these changes invited to people to use of natural sources and the mass production of manufactured goods ,mankind obtained new skills and became a machine operator who was dependent on factory.After all,having control over nature and the ability of using resources gave a confidence to humanity.Thus,Romanticism was born as a reaction to mechanization of human life by evoking the emotional side of human and falsifiying reality.Moreover, by the virtue of the French Revolution, a morality remanding of the peaceful nature of man emerged and it prompted to Romanticists to use emotion over reason.Romantics hold the belief that not everything can be explained by reason and relying on science can not answer the questions of life. The essence of Romanticism basically has the spirit of the individualism and nature. It turns thumbs up on the idea that natural world is the origin of positive and good emotions. It is important to note that for nature symbolizes a reflection of their own soul and the ideal life that based on the meaning of their dreams for Romantics.
Dark Romanticism evolves from works of the Romantic Period (1798-1870) with characteristics of horror fiction and death. It is taken as a reaction of the Transcendental Movement, which originated abreast the Romantic Period from 1830 to 1860. Known writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne found that the ideas displayed in the Transcendental works were idealistic and rose-colored, as a result, they opt to alter these works adding their own element hence this was the birth of the subgenre.
During early colonization Europeans felt that non-Europeans lacked knowledge but were still worthy of respect, later we see a shift to imperialism and a more strengthened view of European superiority. Europeans discovered new lands and created several instances of interaction between Europeans and non-Europeans lasting from the mid 1700s to early 1900s. Early interactions were widely influenced by Enlightenment ideals that created an attitude of respect from the Europeans to non-Europeans. However, European attitudes towards non-Europeans shifted from cautious regard to extreme feelings of superiority. This change was also brought on by ideas such as social Darwinism. The increasing feeling of superiority arose because of the idea that Europeans
The Romantic Period was an artistic, literary movement that started in Europe at the end of the 18th century. The Romantic movement was partly a reaction to the industrial revolution that dominated at that time; it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.
The book of The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe is usually viewed as contained of modern values, compared to the chivalric values in previous age. The change of language, style, characterization, and the essence or idea interests people of the age to this newness. And the book becomes regarded as the 'novel ' because of its innovation. Anyway, the novel is noticeably worth to study not only from the aspect of its newness, maybe it leaves more the word 'novel ' but also the effects on the later age, in Romantic literature. Many Romantic tropes seem to be founded beforehand in The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of
During Jane Austen’s work on “Pride and Prejudice,” Romanticism started to reach its complex, and had strong influence on people’s life, but Austen chose to reject the tenets of that movement. Romanticism emphasized on the power of feeling, but Austen supported rationalism instead. She substantiated traditional principles and the established rules; her novels also display an ambiguity about emotion and an appreciation for intelligence and natural beauty that aligns them with Romanticism. Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is one of her most well-known works and even though the text is hard to understand, I would recommend it for high students because to me, it is the most characteristic and the most eminently quintessential work of Jane Austen.