Romanticism

“I felt before I thought.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Romanticism is a term that originally meant "romance-like" --resembling the fanciful character of the Medieval romances. It also describes an artistic and literary movement inspired by Goethe and Rousseau, that was prevalent in Europe and America between 1750 and 1870. Romanticism, however, was not actually a single movement in cultural history, but rather a term used to describe certain allied aspects of human thought and behavior that surface in individuals and cultures through out history. This Romantic temperament is characterized by a tendency to extol feeling, imagination and intuition over analysis and reason; a preference for solitude and subjectivity often accompanied by a sense of alienation and melancholia. This sense of alienation often finds solace in a mystical relationship with Nature from which the romantic derives a deep sense of the sublime: an obscure yet profound realization of the vast mystery at the heart of all existence.

“The heart has its reasons
of which reason knows nothing.”

Blaise Pascal

German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann declared “infinite longing” to be the essence to Romanticism. Indeed, such a preoccupation with feeling characterizes the tendency of romantics to elevate passions and spontaneity over the strict forms and conventions of the Classical tradition, and to express, often only by suggestion, states of feeling too intense, mystical or elusive to be clearly defined. Romantics search for Truth and Beauty not through objective analysis, but through passionate involvement in all aspects of human experience.


Such “infinite longing” could certainly not find satisfaction in the imperfections and “hard realities” of the present; hence, the romantic tendency to idealize the past. The romantic’s dissatisfaction with objective life the way he knows it, often leads to a pervasive sense of melancholia and a particular nostalgia for the Gothic past, often accompanied by a fondness for ruins and graveyards. Romantics seem to be searching for a world that is not, as they turn to the long ago and far away, not to imitate past ages, but to find inspiration and affirmation of their own ideals.

“By grace divine, Not otherwise,
O Nature, we are thine.”

William Wordsworth

Nature is another place that romantics seem to find inspiration. Many romantics believe that one can encounter the “infinite”, or a sort of “world soul” in the experience of Nature. From such an encounter, one may derive an intimation of the sublime mystery at the heart of all existence. The deeper the relationship with Nature, the deeper the understanding of the underlying mysteries of life. Because of this belief in the primacy of Nature, romantics also tend to idealize native peoples. Primitive peoples, being closer to Nature, are thought to be more truly human; unspoiled in their natural condition.


In the end, one should not attempt to define Romanticism to strictly. It does, however, seem safe to say that subjectivism, intuition, feeling, imagination and Nature are common currents that seem to be flowing through the romantics of all ages. Romantics were not a specific group of individuals in a certain historical age, but rather a recurring phenomenon that seems to resurface in individuals in all ages. Throughout history, the romantics stand as ambassadors of intuition and defenders of the heart, challenging the supremacy of the reign of Reason; willing to resign themselves to nature, solitude, and perhaps even to the melancholia of alienation. But never will they relinquish the sovereignty of their own souls and passions.

“ I am unlike anyone I have ever met;
I will even venture to say that
I am like no one in the whole world.
I may be no better,
but at least I am different.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Sources

Arts, Ideas & Civilization. Jack A. Hobbs & Robert L. Duncan. Prentice-Hall. 1989.

Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. SoftKey Multimedia, Inc. 1994-1996.

Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls. 1993-1995.

For more on Romanticism,
visit The Romanticism Page


(c) Corey Lyman, 2008.