Classicism = reason (order / balance) and social concerns over personal focus:
the Romantics stressed the individual, imagination, and emotions
Romantic Movement
Born in Europe in the 18th century as a response to neoclassicism
In the U.S. in the 19th century (1800’s)
American Literature – wanted to break away from European style – create American style
Classicism (Age of Reason)
Definition:
Believed that reason is the dominating characteristic of both nature and human nature, and both are governed by fixed, unchanging laws
Classicism
18th C (1700’s)
Nature= a self-contained machine, whose laws could be rationally understood
Valued clarity, order, balance
Imagination had to be restrained by reason and common sense
Classicism
Upheld tradition
Resisted change
Human limitations
Reason over Imagination
Social over Personal all emphasized
Common over Individual by Romanticism
Romanticism
Definition:
Emphasized the emotions, an individual, intuition
Move beyond the limits of reason: explore imagination and the supernatural
Romanticism
1800 – 1830
Imagination gives expression to that which marks each person’s unique being
All art is the imaginative expression of the inner essence of the individual/claim for individual freedom.
Romantic writers tried to express their own intuitive experiences.
Common Romantic Subjects
Nature
The Past
Inner World of Human Nature
Topics: Settlers, Native Americans, madness, sin, and guilt (gothic)
Nature
Emphasized beauty, strangeness, mystery of (not rational laws)
Saw as an organic process, constantly developing and changing
Connection between human imagination and the natural world
Inner World of Human Nature
The exploration and expression of the writer’s most private inner being.
Belief that this interior world of intense feeling is not ruled by reason.
Interested in the irrational depths of human nature.
A Quick Comparison
Age of Reason Romanticism
Reason Imagination
Social (society) Personal
Common Individual freedom
Common sense Intuition
Tradition Social reforms, spiritual growth (change)
Rational law of nature Nature as mystery
Human limitations Supernatural
Six Primary Elements of Romance
Love of Nature (looked to nature for inspiration)
Focus on the self and individual
Supernatural and Gothic tales – the irrational side of the imagination
Romanticized the past (picturesque and exotic past – wrote about past times and places)
Idealism and Optimism
Nationalism