Project about Romanticism

Romanticism

Giorgia Annamaria Bolano, Asia Anania, Francesca Basile e Greta Scarfone

Index

What are we going to talk about?

5 Chapter

4 Chapter

2 Chapter

3 Chapter

1 Chapter

Historical Context

Prose with Different Novels

Romantic Poetry

General Features

What is Romanticism?

7 Chapter

6 Chapter

Concept of Immagination

Destructive Love

WordMap

1 Chapter

What is Romanticism?

Its meaning

Romanticism, attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.

Its leading

Romanticism opens a complex phase of human history that anticipates modernity caused by huge historical events.

2 Chapter

Romantic Poetry

Romantic Poetry in England

00:00:00

Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century.

Audio by Asia Anania

Early Romantic Poetry

00:00:00

In the second half of the 18th century, a new sensibility became manifest in poetry and a new generation of poets began to arise.

Audio by Asia Anania

3 Chapter

General Features

Main features of Romantic Poetry

-Giorgia Annamaria Bolano

Romantic poets tend to focus on the experience and feelings of the individual, the revelation of essential truth, and the sublimity of nature. Romantics believed in the importance of the individual's emotions and especially emphasized the representation and production of intense emotions.

4 Chapter

Prose with Different Novels

Prose becomes essential

At the end of 18th century, after the American and French Revolutions, the novel became a popular genre.

Different novel genres

We can highlight two key novel genres during the Romantic Period: Novel of Manners and Gothic Novel

5 Chapter

Historical context

What happened those years?

-Greta Scarfone

Romanticism moves through the late 18th and 19th centuries. In these years the Revolutions were a key factor which helped shape this movement but they also changed the European society.

6 Chapter

Concept of Imagination

The usage of something underrated

-Francesca Basile and Giorgia Annamaria Bolano

Belief in the importance of the imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets such as John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Coleridge, unlike the neoclassical poets. Keats said, "I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination- What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth."

7 Chapter

Destructive Love

The Belle Dame sans Merci

-Asia Anania

The Belle Dame sans Merci is a ballad by the English poet John Keats. We chose this ballad because we thought of it like a crucial topic reflected on the nowadays society.

Word Map

What about it?

I think that there can be different understandings of critical or "main" features in Romantic poetry. I think that one main feature of Romantic poetry is the emphasis on self. There is a primacy that Romantic poetry places on the experience of the individual. The subjective experience is something that strikes at the very heart of Romantic poetry. This subjective experience is something that distinguishes Romantic poetry from other forms of the discourse in the role it plays in praising in the individual and their own perception of the world.

What else?

Now we can highlight two key novel genres during the Romantic period: 1. *Novel of Manners:* - This genre depicted the social norms and habits of the upper classes. - Jane Austen, notably, excelled in this genre between 1811 and 1817, addressing the challenges faced by female protagonists dealing with societal expectations, courtship, marriage, and social decorum. - Austen's writing is characterized by wit, ironic prose, and an ability to reveal the tragicomic aspects of seemingly ordinary characters. 2. *Gothic Novel:* - Flourishing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Gothic novels created an atmosphere of mystery and terror. - Typical settings included medieval buildings, castles with hidden dungeons, secret passages, and trapdoors. - Key contributors to this genre were Horace Walpole, credited with the first Gothic novel, "The Castle of Otranto" (1764), and Ann Radcliffe, known for distinguishing between 'terror' and 'horror.' - Radcliffe's notable works include "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (1794) and "The Italian" (1797). These genres reflected the societal changes and interests of the time, offering readers insights into the upper-class social dynamics and thrilling tales of mystery and terror.

What else?

in Early Romantic Poetry, a new sensibility became manifest in poetry and a new generation of poets began to arise. Even if they didn't lay down a precise programme of rules, they established new trends which paved the way for the Romantic generations of poets. The two most popular trends of the period were “Ossianic” and “Graveyard” poetry. The former consist of a cycle of poems by a legendary Irish warrior, called Ossian, who lived in the 3rd century in Scotland. Ossianic or pre-romanticism: interest in the past, wild gloomy landscapes and meloncholy as feelings. “graveyard” poetry was called after an influential group of poems know as “the Graveyard School” because of their melancholy tone and because they set their poems in cemeteries or among ruins.

What about it?

The expression Romantic poetry' encompasses a wide variety of authors who gave life to a heterogeneous corpus of poetic production. Romantic poetry in England is divided into two generations: the first one has as protagonists William Blake (but not everyone considers him as a romantic poet, some people think of him more as a precursor of romantic poetry), William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (these last two are considered the founders of Romanticism); William Wordsworth defined his and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's innovative poetry in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads: first published anonymously. Their main concern was to bring about a change in the intellectual climate of their era, to move away from the conventions of Augustan poetry and to introduce a renewed, simpler, more direct language. while the second one has as protagonists Lord Byron, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

What about it?

William Blake's perspective on Imagination is described as a divine power connecting humans to God. "Songs of Innocence" celebrate the uncorrupted child's purity, seen as more attuned to God. Childhood, a fleeting state, gives way to experience and suffering for spiritual growth. The poems convey the poet's emotions through children, portraying innocence as a source of happiness. "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" juxtapose themes of heaven and hell, love and hate, illustrating contrasting aspects of human existence. Wordsworth viewed imagination as a dynamic force shaping our perception and responses. He emphasized its importance for well-being, portraying in his poetry how memory, particularly of childhood, holds the key to joy and tranquility. His work highlights the transformative power of the poet's imagination, turning recollected emotions into verses that convey the essence of the original experience.

What else?

Coleridge stressed the role of imagination. He distinguished between "primary" and "secondary" imagination. He described "primary imagination" as a fusion of perception. It was also the power to give chaos a certain order. Primary imagination= joining the world of thought with the world of things. Secondary imagination= dissolves, diffuses, in order to re-create. It was the poetic faculty, which not only gave a shape or a order to a given world, but built new worlds.

What about it?

After the American and French Revolutions the novel, during the Romantic period, became a significant reading choice for the middle and upper classes. Two prominent novel genres emerged during this time: the "novel of manners," exemplified by Jane Austen's works, which portrayed social conventions of the upper classes; and the "Gothic novel," characterized by mystery and terror, often set in medieval settings, with key contributors being Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe. Radcliffe distinguished between 'terror' and 'horror' in the genre.

What else?

Romanticism opens a complex phase of human history, which, inaugurating modernity, modifies the relationships between man and the world after great historical events such as the failure of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic age and the first signs of the Industrial Revolution. Romanticism emphasized emotions, individualism, nature, often explored intense feelings and made use of the imagination.

What about it?

English Romanticism developed primarily in the historical context of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The context of the Industrial Revolution and social changes help shape this movement, England is at the center of the Industrial Revolution, with significant changes in production, cities and living conditions. Romanticism often reflects a criticism of the negative effects of industrialization on nature and society. The ideals of the French Revolution initially inspired some Romantics, but the Napoleonic Wars led to growing disappointment and critical reflection. Social transformations, including movements for civil rights and the abolition of slavery, influence romantic sensibilities, which often take the side of just social causes. English Romanticism sees political changes, such as the growth of the democratic movement, and social issues influencing the works and ideas of the Romantics.

What about it?

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in Europe in the late 18th century.It represented a reaction against the age of the Enlightenment, which privileged reason, logic and science as sources of knowledge and progress. The Romantics, in contrast, celebrated individuality, emotion, creativity, and the power of the imagination as tools for understanding and interpreting the world.

What else?

There are different interpretations of this poem, which despite its brevity gathers in itself many symbols and metaphors. The merciless lady, from whom no one escapes, represents death. The knight can't help but follow her and lose everything for her. The link between love and death, a typically romantic theme, is evident: the two things are often linked, because love always has a destructive or in any case dangerous and painful part. The one between the knight and the lady is a destructive love. His heart, seduced and abandoned, is destined for desolation. The poor knight is a prisoner of a love quite similar to death.

What else?

Poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron and others, in a reaction to the rational, scientific, mechanistic view of the world depicted in the literature of the eighteenth century, began to emphasize concepts like sensibility (how one feels about life); love of nature; a return to primitivism and an interest in the past (for example, the Celtic revival); mysticism and an interest in the individual. The Romantic Period poets tended to focus on an individual's experience in the world, and so their poetry tried to analyze a person's unique experiences and attitudes toward those experience rather than make generalizations about society's experience or attitudes.

What about it?

The Belle Dame sans Merci (“The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy”) is a ballad by the English poet John Keats. The belle dame sans merci describes the encounter between an unnamed knight, immersed in a barren and desolate landscape, and the poet. The knight tells of how his misfortune came the day he came across a mysterious woman of great beauty and 'wild-eyed'. The beautiful lady declares that she is “daughter of a fairy” and loves him. He, subjugated, is led by her to the 'Cave of the Elves', where he falls asleep. During his sleep, the knight has a vision of pale princes and kings, who admonish him: 'the beautiful lady without mercy' has now taken him in his net and he is in his power. When the knight wakes up, he discovers that he is alone, back on the desolate hill, where he remains waiting, wandering disconsolate.