Romantic+tenets

= Ms. M's Brief (and highly simplified) Guide to Romanticism = //** One of the key things to keep in mind with this module is that there is no one clear definition of Romanticism. You must keep looking for explanations and examining why so many scholars, poets, authors and academics continue to write about it in an attempt to understand what it is, how it came to be and what it attempted to say/what might still be relevant today. The more you read and collate quotes/ideas/examples the more complete your thesis and ability to draw conclusions about the movement and it's author's work will be. **// Romanticism is a literary movement which has its origins in the gothic writings of the Seventeenth Century. The Gothic Genre emerged as a reaction against Elightenment principles that everything in the world could be explainned by logical, scientific reasoning and then classified and ordered to facilitate classification and understanding. Gothic writers felt that there was no place for imagination in such an ordered and logical world and so they 'sought the dark corners where enlightenment had not yet penetrated'. they looked to the past, the supernnatural, religious ritual and superstitions as a doorway to the imagination. The Romantic writers took these ideas and incorporated them into a rich and exciting body of work which looked to nature and the natural world ( as well as the supernatural) to understand themselves and their place in the world. Romanticism as movement placed an emphasis on the value of individual freedom experience, expression and imagination. Romanticism's most famous and canonical authors are the poets; Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron and Percy Bysse Shelley. Mary Shelley ( who married P. B Shelley) is perhaps the most famous female author of this group and one of the few who was not known as a poet. Bear in mind that these writers did not necessarily reject all that the Enlightenment offerred, they were interested in retaining and valuing **imagination as a means to understanding the world.** Each literary movement happens as a response to the changing ideas, politics and philosophies of its time. The Romantic Writers were thus influenced by the writers and thinkers of their time - Erasmus Darwin ( Charle's Darwin's Grandfather) William Godwin ( Mary Shelley's father) Mary Wollestonecraft ( Mary Shelley's mother) and Rousseau and the French philosophers whose writings prompted Revolutions in France and America. Thus, in order to understand why the Romantic Movement occurred and developed as it did it is necessary to have some understaning of the issues of the time. The French Revolution. although Bloody and terrifying had, at its core a desire for all men to be equal and to have a right to a voice and a vote and a say in the direction of their life. Simply because one was born poor and uneducated did not mean that that was where he must stay. Rousseau's idea of man as a tabula rasa ( or blank slate) is effectively used by Mary Shelly in //Frankenstein// and can also be seen clearly in Coleridge's poetry ( especially The Mystery Poems) The American Revolution and the abolition of Slavery also have their basis in the same ideals. Mary Wollestonecraft agitated for women's education and rights. She also sought women's suffrage - the right for women to vote, to have a voice and to be heard. The Romantic movement can be seen to have a very strong momentum. It's ideas were taken up by Nineteenth century writers and contemporary concerns and ideas - particularly about industrialisation and the role of science ( initially raised by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein) became part of the writings. Individual experience of and the importance and significance of nature were heightened.

Emily Dickinson was strongly influenced by the Romantic Poets - especially Keats- and her life reflects some of the ideals which Romanticism came to embody such as; Nature being a conduit to a higher understanding of self and one's place in the world The importance of individual experience and understanding The artist ( here referring to poet, writer, painter, author etc) 'suffering' for their art as they alone may be able to appreciate the beauty they see and wish to express in writing/painting/song our current understanding of 'bohemian' and tortured, suffering artists has its roots in the Romantic movement.

= Romanticism in a nutshell: The Tenets of Romanticism = = __Sensibility: __ *** The ability to feel or perceive; Keen intellectual perception. ** *** Mental or emotional responsiveness toward something, such as the feelings of another. ** *** Refined awareness and appreciation in matters of feeling. ** *** A kind of sensitivity or responsiveness that is both aesthetic and moral, showing a capacity to feel both for others' sorrows and for beauty. ** *** A way of feeling intense emotions - **a radical idea, given that many people viewed sensibility as a purely female domain. *** A sense of perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered. ** *The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; -- often used in the plural = = **__ Sublimity __** *** Causing deep emotions and feelings of wonder or joy perception of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth or overwhelming sense of greatness, grandeur, beauty etc. ** = = ***associated with ideas of awe, intensity ruggedness, terror, and vastness emphasizing Man's relative insignificance in the face of Nature, arousing emotions, and stimulating the imagination. ** = = ***distinct from the Beautiful and the Picturesque, and was of profound importance in relation to an appreciation of the grandeur and violence of natural phenomena. ** =