The Romantic Trend


 

 

1. What Is the Romantic Trend?

Romanticism is a literary trend, which appeared in the early XIXth century in Germany and quickly gained many sustainers in all European countries, especially among the young generation.

 

2. Which Are Its Characteristics?

As any other literary trends, Romanticism has some characteristics of its own, who imposed the new trend into the eighteen’s century life and made it become a way of living for many people ever since.

Ø They propose subjectivism instead of objectivism

Ø They promote the concept of escape into:

· Nature

· Dream

· History

Ø They develop the idea of cosmic sentiment

Ø as well as that of fantastic literature

Ø They take folk as a main source of inspiration

Ø They introduce the concept of Titanism

Ø They have a predilection for the        myths of:

· The Nature

· And the savage

Ø They promote poems with luxuriant atmosphere.

Ø And they visualize death as a modality of escaping reality.

 

However, the basic trait of Romantic writers is the constant desire of running away from reality and creating another fantastic reality of their own.

 

3. Which Are the Romantic Themes, Motives, Procedures, Models and Species?

 

THEMES

MOTIVES

SPECIES

NATURE

THE DREAM

POETRY

LOVE

THE RUINS

PASTEL

HISTORY

MEDITATION

THE GENIUS’S CONDITION

DRAMA

THE LOST PARADISE

TRAVELING DIARY

NOVEL

 

The procedure Romantics introduced is the antithesis and their literary model is the ancient oriental literature.

 

4. How Did Romanticism Appear?

First, Romanticism represented the young generation’s refuse of respecting the rigid rules of the Classicism and its way of rebelling against them. So it becomes that first existed a preparing period called Preromanticism, promoted by the German magazine and movement "Storm and Daring". They clearly refused the Classical esthetic, which they considered rough and unfair. From this circle will later appear the famous German writer Schiller, who will settle the Romantic concept of the poet:

"The poet is an eternal seeker of the Absolute and he reflects geniality."

 

5. Which Are the Most Important Romantic Writers?

Even though it appeared in Germany, this new literary movement extended to all the other European countries and gained a lot of sustainers due to its fresh and original concepts. But, its most famous promoters are the German, French and English Romantic writers.

 

GERMANY

FRANCE

ENGLAND

FRIEDRICH SCHILLER

VICTOR HUGO

PERCY SHELLEY

JOHANN VON GOETHE

ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE

GEORGE GORDON BYRON

AMADEUS HOFFMANN

RENÉ DE CHÂTEAUBRIAND

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

NOVALIS

ALFRED DE MUSSET

JOHN KEATS

FRIEDRICH SCHELLING

MADAME DE STAËL

EDWARD YOUNG

HEINRICH SCHUBERT

BENJAMIN CONSTANT

JANE AUSTEN

 

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