Romanticism pon 14.40 16.20 Krevel Prvi. prepisat 14.10.2013 Drugi.

i. Romanticism the term Historical term which denotes a literary movement which renovated the Specific historical period which profoundly changed literature - Still ambiguous to what the term actually means The most established, prevailing definition: to define romanticism as a strong reaction to social, economic, cultural views. - Strong opposition to neo-classical - A literary movement and shift in literary movement during 1770 1848 Intellectually marked as a violent reaction to the environment. Politically inspired by French and American revolution. BUT French/American revolution were actually the peak of the enlighten revolution. - Emotionally preoccupied with oneself, sense of the infinite and the transcendental. - anti-social religious ego maniacs - They were intellectually marked by violent relation to the enviroment - Did champion progressive courses, religious. BUT in different times, different ppl did that. Coleridge drunk on opium where he became religious. Went to france(French revolution) Because of these definitions there are differences I understanding the term romanticism in the whole sense of the word. M.H. Agrams: describes romanticism and defines it against the neo-classical period. 1789 french revolution. 1798 day of the publication of the Lyrical Ballads (Coleridge). He goes on describing what are the main features of romanticism; - it favoured innovation (before there was following of antiquity, the classical forms were established) > things grow out of themselves organically example Wordsworth proposal in the Lyrical Ballads (poets should deal with common life in a language really used by real life men). > sudden usage of the supernatural > usage of the idea of poet profit (the primitive, the unnatural, the weird) > the use of poetic symbolism (objects are filled with significance with other meanings and symbolism..a good example is Blake with his animals that he uses for other concepts, does not really mean animals) - The essential element of poetry are the feelings, the poets emotions, the course is spontaneous. The poem evolves according to the poets principles into an organic structure. The form wasnt the measure of quality. - external nature becomes a persistent subject of poetry. Objective correlative. You describe your feeling with what is going on with the nature. Daffodils not rly daffodils, but expressing feelings. - the lyrical subject is the poet himself, directly or indirectly. - what is typical for a romantic production is the condition inspired by the French revolution ppl can change the world according to their ideas. Human beings have infinite aspiration to worlds goodness. That ppl strive with imagination to reach infinite goodness.

Weltschmertz being sad for no particular reason :P cuz everything in the world is sad and bad. Byron was a master of that, but mostly he had no reason rly to be sad(being a lord, had enough money that he spent regularly) Shelley on the other hand lived a similar life but had other problems. Promoting free love, feminism and vegetarianism :P. >> we can already see with Abrams there are problems with defining the term romanticism. RENE WELLEK Aware of these problems. In his essay The Concept of Romanticism established wider definition of romanticism. Wellek The Concept of Romanticism: - The faith in the crucial role of the imagination. This belief based on that imagination was considered the only truly creative force. Romantics figured out that the world, everything we have (religious, everything) was created through human imagination. The highest form of imagination is the imagination which creates beauty. Poet is a prophet who creates deeper truth, this deeper truth is beauty. o Such belief is not reserved to romanticism only. We can observe the same thing in the renaissance. (Renaissance metaphysics) this definition seems too broad. - Special meaning in the role of nature. Nature is an organic whole. It is not rational. The structure of nature is the same as structure of man same again in renaissance. Man is natural and its the highest possible form of nature. > also too broad. - The usage of symbols to present individual worlds and ideas and views. Romanticism uses symbols and myths as a means of forming individualized world views. (tiger, tiger Blake developed his philosophy where you need the tiger-experience to know life. He did that with usage of very simple symbols.) >> usage f symbols is specific romanticism. >> again too broad. >> all of these things are true, but the definition /criteria are too broad to define the nature of romanticism. (Byron obsessed with himself, never used nature. Very clear spoken. ) All these definitions are full of ambiguity. Some theoreticians say that the true spirit of romanticism was the legacy of enlightenment. This hypothesis would solve the paradox as the enlightenment being inspired by the French revolution and ? - Romanticism became conservative, anti-humanist, Christian. - They really liked the ideas of revolution, but they saw what was happening and they didnt like that and they didnt like the people dying. Coleridge started smoking opium so no one knew what he really meant. R. MAYO: 1954 - He took Lyrical Ballads to this day considered as a revolution and he compared them to contemporary enlightenment poetry. The New Monthly Magazine. The whole thing blew out of proportion,.. later recognized as a manifesto. The results were quite surprising. - Lyrical Ballads were a product of the age, they were not the revolutionary thing. States and attitudes at the time were already established (those in Lyrical Ballads) so it wasnt something revolutionary. >> the Lyrical Ballads didnt fell revolutionary at the time. >> he was the 1st to plant a seed of doubt Wordsworth, Coleridge and Wordsworths sister walking through the park. Dorothy said theyre poets so they could publish it and go travel. >> so they wrote sth popular, sth that would sell so they could earn money and travel&stuff :P

AIDAN DAY -he introduces 2 phases of enlightenment: 1. Rigid version of neo-classicism (alexander pope, Samuel Johnson) did favour these literary achievements. There was a later phase after they died, the interest shifted to the art created from 5th cent BC to 1st cent BC. Interested in stuff that was done before that resulting in a French revolution. This neo-classicism startled the French revolution. >> classical neo classcism favoures the classical forms >> the >> manka vmes, dodej Tretji. 21.10.2013 The philosophy of romanticism Geischesgeschite(?) the whole point is in the name, its trying to find the .. it observes the age. It defines the spirit of the age by observing the paradigm. 4 elements: - The concept of the subject - The concept of transcendence - The concept of truth - The actual situation (concept of reality) These 4 paradigms are there throughout the history, the historical epochs differ in how ppl understand the whole concept. for example the antiquity the notion of transcendence (is god) was faith. You take whatever youre given cuz thisis your faith and you cant avoid it. >> the subject is defined by faith. You are a toy in the hands of faith. The truth is the category which describes the relationship between subject and faith. If youre a slave/woman, you just have to accept your faith. Nobody rly fought their status cuz that was it. If that is to be, than it should happen the middle ages: you are a subject only if you believe in the Christian god. Your existence is defined by god. The truth are the 10 commandments and if you didnt believe in the Christian god, you werent the subject and you were all the horrible things. The modern age: subject is transcendent. I think for I am. As long as I am and produce thoughts, that is the guarantee of my existence. From our imagination we create everything; the law, art, everything. This is the reason why man is seen as god, he is the creator of everything. The reality of that situation in humanism, declaration of independence, the French revolution,.. Post modern age: I connect, therefore I am. The gist of romanticism can only be seen in a definition that provides all the things that romanticism really is. Romanticism can be understood as a face witin the historical concept that covers a much longer period of time. (ends with Nietsches god is dead/man is no longer god) Romanticism represents the peak of the modern age(the peak 1800cca). From the point of view of geischesgeshite 3 important things happened around this time: - The French revolution(concept of freedom): provided the idea of the principle of freedom. For the 1st time the French revolution showed that a man can realize his idea. Those who were oppressed for centuries had an idea and with it they changed the world and the order. Man becomes the primary agent of reality. People realized they can change the world order according to their interests. The principle of freedom was in the politically active years and later it was also there but on a more intimate stage.

German idealistic philosophy connected to Kant, Heigl which established the principle of subjectivity as something autonomous, sovereign and absolute. The subject no longer needed to be justified with metaphysical concept such as transcendence. Now, subject existence no longer depends on god. The subject becomes completely autonomous. Conscious is autonomous in the way it creatures everything from itself. Everything is created by imagination and consciousness. Consciousness is something absolutely creative. Weimar classics: Goethe, Schiller the main representatives. They established the belief in the autonomy in the aesthetic. >> the aesthetic means there are no rules and no norms defining the aesthetic. (beforehand there were loadz of rules about what is beautiful and should be like this and like that..). romanticism carried out this principle as aesthetic being completely autonomous. A romantic can only do so by promoting art as the highest principle(?). he is the highest expression of this free creative subjectivity. Romantic art is the highest expression of creativity. Beauty cannot be guided by any norms. The greatest way to use your imagination is to create music. Romantic artists regarded themselves and their work as being as being the most important. They saw themselves as being the carriers of the divine.

In romanticism these 3 things fell together and were translated into foundation of artistic literary creation. Perception of beauty as the highest thing that can be done, the concept of freedom and idealistic philosophy these 3 things together are the basics of the period and time were dealing with. Romanticism is a part of a much longer process (the modern age). Man becomes transcendence. Romanticism is in the middle where the subject becomes the absolute subject. It all started in the renaissance when the middle ages ended. The medieval metaphysics was based on dualistic ideology ended in this time. What was gaining importance was the effort to renew the indignity modern man as a unit. Flesh = soul. Soul = flesh. Renaissance was trying to establish man without the external transcendence. The unification of soul and flesh was built upon the principle of immanence meaning that sth exists only in the mind. The immanent essence of man is nature. Man is a part of nature. Nature built man to be able to think and do stuff. Nature made man as man is, being able to move and think. The role of man is that he is the highest realisation of nature. We are nature. We are natural. We will die cuz were a part of nature. And at the same time were in control of nature. The 17th cent discarded such image of man. Descartes proposed a renovation of the whole medieval differentiation between the spirit and flesh. He claimed that the reality stretches between res cogitans(the mental, subjectivity) and res extensa(objectivity, the physical). Both connect a man into a unit, which essentially remains separated. They are connected into 1 unit but essentially separated. Man is the eye because of his subjectivity. The Renaissance man was the eye cuz he was a combination of flesh and soul which are connected. Here we have 1 unit. He still claimed that such subjectivity still depends on the existence of god. Man is not autonomous, still governed by some external power such as god. This idea continued through classicism, baroque, enlightenment. Mans existence happiness, existence,.. was governed by outer existence that can even be rationally proved. The problem is that there is still something which governs us. Romantic ideas become possible only with disintegration of these metaphysical ideas. Romanticism becomes possible when mans subjectivity is freed from the limits of any metaphysical order, where subjectivity becomes autonomous, absolute. >> the foundation element of romanticism. This takes place in the 2nd half of the 18th cent and dies in the middle of the 19th cent. The romantic subjectivity is autonomous generator of ideas. the gist is the man who wants to be autonomous and an absolute subject of himself: subjectivity, imagination, emotions,.. I am absolute,

completely free and autonomous. I create the world with my creativity. i create the absolute beauty. I feel, therefore I am. My feelings are divine. >> basic stream of romanticism. - You are more divine and closer to absolute freedom if youre aesthetic yourself, your life is aesthetic and you create beauty. This notion can be found in all romantics regardless of when they were writing. Romantic man carries the transcendence himself; his emotions, moves, imagination. Because I can feel, I can imagine, I am transcendent, I am god. Reaching the ideal of this subjectivity is usually guided by the objective world. When youre pursuing your highest goals you have obstacles in the objective world. There are various ways of how to face the objective reality: - To admit the insolubility of the conflict; To retreat to pessimism (welthschmertz), melancholy. To retreat to my interior. I will observe the world from the far and criticize the world. Byron represents a romantic like that nobility, aristocracy, inherited a fortune, he was the rock stars of romanticism, he could have just about anyone. Also John Keats. - Trying to control reality by means of imagination and feeling. To create a parallel world and from it control the reality. Creating transcendental mystical systems. You would create your own little mysticism and through that you would achieve this existence. (Coleridge, ..9 - The geographical going somewhere to find a piece of mind :P - Trying to transcend reality by means of writing sth so beautiful that would live forever and become immortal, that would live through time and make the world beautiful forever (Keats, Coleridge in his 1st phases before he went nuts:P) Idea of subjective freedom and autonomy. That your actions are not governed by a higher force. One of the questions is also what happens when you reach that ideal? It becomes reality. Nothing more to reach, its not the ideal any more. Its not a true ideal. etrti. 28.10.2013 Prose written in that time has nothing in common with poetry atm. >> the common denominator which is everywhere? Creating beauty= one of the side effects. You have to be free to create beauty, you have to be unbound by anything else >> principle of freedom! Only if you are completely free, you can create this beauty. freedom in social arena, also ppl creating their own mystical freedom. Even if ppl were left/right, there was iin general this belief in freedom (artistic, religious, social,..).

THE ROMANTIC NOVEL From the point of view of global historical development, the romantic novel had a much more fatal role than poetry. If we step away from the spiritual perspective, again the principle of freedom emerges. 1st thing we have to know: romanticism as a literary period coincides with industrial revolution period. It was a revolution. It was a really big thing, nothing was as it used to be with ppl. The main consequence was the formation of various markets, also a new market emerged the literary market. Were going into the direction of capitalism.

Indudtrial rev. was a period of major social, political, everything changed. A completely new world order was established. The way of life, everything was changing. 1750 1830 so it coincides with romanticism. The principle characteristics of industrial revolution: - Invention of things and stuff to produce the goods more chiefly and more effectively. - Inventions of machines, procedures that would facilitate the invention of goods. (for example the steam engine is invented if you have the power of the steam, the steam does things when before ppl were needed to do that. >> stuff were produced much better, faster without needing so many ppl. >> loadz and loadz of stuff are being produced and are cheaper. >> the economy goes up, you have enough to buy more machines and produce even more. The machines needed ppl,, ppl followed the machines. - Period of inventions, more and more research and development. The IndR changes everything - Reduction of mortality rate, medicine was developing faster and faster, more and more children survived. More and more ppl who served those machines. >> more employees, more wealth >>> all resulted in mass production, emergence of the new class. - The notion of consumerism as entertainment. >> you are working for a capitalist for hours and hours a day and then you relay by spending that money. The basics and the beauty of capitalism. Whatever the workers got paid, they gave back to the capitalists by buying more and more stuff and developing the need to buy stuff. - They were convinced that they need to start buying things, they had a limited amount of spare time, so they used it to read books >> they had to buy books. - The leisure time became buying yourself sth to relax. - Literary market was formed. The market which governed everything that had to do with literature. - Already in the middle of 20th cent this new type of literary creator was formed. This new writer of literature becomes independent producer of the market. Hes a craftsman who writes stuff to sell. Literary works become the objects of consumption. Writer produces commercial goods >> you are on the market and you have to survive with what you sell. What kind of stuff do you write? Mainstream stuff pop. The rise of mass literature/mass fiction/pop fiction; easy read stuff, stuff that ppl would buy to forget about the world for an hour. - These ppl were suddenly on the market was that the traditional system of patronage ended. If you were an artist, you had a patron who would pay your living in return the writer/poet was producing whatever he was. >> the idealized version: I will pay for your living and you create what you create. The real version though was that then writers would have to write what the patron said he wanted to be written (would Shakespeare if he would not be in love with his patron, would he maybe criticize the patron?). >> writers are free porducers of the literary market that are not connected to the audience, they had to write whatever the patron said. >> concept of freedom of an author who is unbound of anything and anyone. In the other hand you have the author who writes for the public pop fiction. On this other side of the scale there were mostly female writers. Suddenly women appeared mostly as authors of cheap pop fiction . it was the only respectable means of getting money for women. In Victorian times it was much harder for a woman to make money. >> liberalization of the market also meant liberalitzation of women to do same things as man to survive. >> romanticism not only connected to French revolution, but also connected to the new situation emerging from the industrial revolution

How fiction from being completely looked down on became the main vehicle for the promoting of burua and capitalist values?? Suddenly there was loadz of pop fiction around. In the context of romantic literature, prose fiction had eytremely ___ - prose fiction was 2nd, 3rd rate litarture good enough for women, children, unemployed. >> respected were :: Childrens calssics, classics such as Pilgrims Progress by Bunyan (Christian allegorical tale about Everyman who travels through various stages in life where he experiences various triads and how he overcomes them by observing Christian values &co one of the stations is called Vanity Fair. Its a town called vanity where theres an everlasting fair going on.), Robinson Crusoe, don Kihote by Cervantes, novels by Richardson(sentimental novels&letters, Pamela), Fielding, Lawrence Stern, Tom Jones,.. >> the books that were praised were connected to realism. Most novels that were published in this period were dismissed as trash to be forgotten. They were considered as cheap sitcoms. (like sitcoms today, no cultural/artistic enlightment) Only a few novels remained popoular throughout 19th cent; gothic romances, walter Scott, (Jane Austen was forgotten),.. only a few books remain there as being ok. >> scott1 read :)) Romantic fiction is also today considered as 2nd rate cuz it was already at that time. The understanding of novels was still connected to the first meaning of romance. These tales were considered as the worst literature imaginable. The moral tendencies of novels was cherished as much as stylistic features of the novels. >> fiction in general considered sub-literary >> overall attitude to novel reading was negative, like spending time Paradox: writing/novels was one of the most consuming forms of print in that period. >> the rise of reading public. People would read, they would want entertainment, they needed to read, they were addicted to it. Novels became a media in the modern sense, they started to function as any media today. It was everywhere, people enjoyed it. They could sell you so much stuff, so much ideology. Fiction at that time had the potential of influencing ppl just like 7th heaven today :D. all sorts of fiction were gradually transformed in the direction where capitalism wanted to go. Mass production for the lower classes they were selling stuff which ppl are buying and filled it with things that make those readers buy even more. Advertising certain things, advertising consumption, - promoting the values that they wanted to promote. Religious fiction which was used to spread the burua values, ideas promoting consumption Different types of novels, more and more stuff was working for the consumer culture the middle classes were behind the revolution. The most important type of fiction was called the modern novel. Concentrated more or less on the modern times, consumed by the middle classes and the higher classes of society. Modern novel was basically the main vehicle of struggle, of surviving. >> consumed by more well educated middle, upper middle classes and sristocracy. These novels were used for the ideological self definition of the middle classes. They create the whole ideology of importance of middle class life, provide ?? vrtaNJJEEEE !!