Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Romanticism:
Romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement that began in the late
eighteenth century in Europe. Generally, Romanticism was a reaction against the
dry rationality of the Enlightenment period, it focused on the sublimity of nature, it
and stressed strong emotion as the source of beauty, art, and knowledge.
The Romantic literary movement was heavily influenced by the German writer,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and a group of German Romantic writers who
emerged during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Emily Bront
was likely exposed to and influenced by the German Romantics when she and
Charlotte studied literature and the German language in Brussels at a private
school.
A group of British Romantic poets emerged in England during 1798 to 1832, which
included William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and John Keats. These writers influenced
literature throughout the nineteenth century. The Bronts were also familiar with
the writings of these British Romantic poets.
Romance is a term with many meanings. In the Middle Ages, a romance was a tale in
prose or poetry dealing with the adventures of a knight and filled with chivalric deeds and
courtly love. In the nineteenth century, a romance was a prose narrative telling a
fictional story that dealt with its subjects and characters in a symbolic, imaginative,
and non-realistic way. Typically, a romance would deal with plots and people that were
exotic, remote in time or place from the reader, and obviously imaginary. Hawthorne's
The House of Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter, with their exaggerated characters,
its overtones of the supernatural, and their symbolic intertwining of the past and
present, are examples of the romance.
****Romanticism generally is defined as an approach that differs from classicism in
many important ways.
Romantic thought places higher emphasis on emotion than on rationality;
it exalts the individual over society;
it questions or attacks rules and conventions;
it prefers Nature over the city;
it sees humankind in nature as being morally superior to civilized humanity (the
concept of the noble savage);
it sees children as essentially innocent, until corrupted by their surroundings.
Its quest for emotional fulfillment may take it in the direction of dark
Romanticism, toward the Gothic. (Hawthorne = Dark Romanticism)
Romantic Techniques
1. Remoteness of settings in time and space.
2. Improbable plots.
3. Inadequate or unlikely characterization.
4. Authorial subjectivity.
self-destructive tendencies
a loner, rejected from society
Heathcliff clearly possesses most of these attributes.
The Gothic novel:
The Gothic novel evolved in the United Kingdom, beginning with
Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto in 1765. The genre
became very popular and usually created feelings of gloom,
mystery, suspense, and fear in the reader. Most Gothic novels
contain some of the following elements:
a castle, sometimes ruined or haunted
other sinister, ruined buildings
extreme landscapes and weather
death and madness
omens
ancestral curses
terrifying events
taboo or sensational topics
the suggestion of the supernatural
a villain or villain-hero driven by passion
a hero whose true identity is unknown until the end of the novel
a curious or persecuted heroine
a heroine wooed by both a good and a dangerous suitor
revenge
a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not (the castle plays such a key role that it
has been called the main character of the Gothic novel),
ruined buildings which are sinister or which arouse a pleasing melancholy,
dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern
houses, become spooky basements or attics,
labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs,
shadows, a beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only
source of light failing (a candle blown out or, today, an electric failure),
extreme landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and
extreme weather,
omens and ancestral curses,
magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural,
a passion-driven, willful villain-hero or villain,
a curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescuedfrequently,
a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel,
horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings.
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic
and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, necrophilia, and nameless terrors. It crosses
boundaries, daylight and the dark, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness.
Sometimes covertly, sometimes explicitly, it presents transgression, taboos, and fears
fears of violation, of imprisonment, of social chaos, and of emotional collapse. Most of us
immediately recognize the Gothic (even if we don't know the name) when we encounter
it in novels, poetry, plays, movies, and TV series. For some of usand I include myself
safely experiencing dread or horror is thrilling and enjoyable.
Elements of the Gothic have made their way into mainstream writing. They are found in
Sir Walter Scott's novels, Charlotte Bront's Jane Eyre , and Emily Bront's Wuthering
Heights and in Romantic poetry like Samuel Coleridge's "Christabel," Lord Byron's "The
Giaour," and John Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes." A tendency to the macabre and bizarre
which appears in writers like William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Flannery O'Connor
has been called Southern Gothic.
angles, sustained close ups during movement, and darkness or shadows create the same
sense of claustrophobia and entrapment.)
2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The work is pervaded by a threatening
feeling, a fear enhanced by the unknown. Often the plot itself is built around a mystery,
such as unknown parentage, a disappearance, or some other inexplicable event. Elements
3, 4, and 5 below contribute to this atmosphere. (Again, in modern filmmaking, the
inexplicable events are often murders.)
3. An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants (either former or
present). The prophecy is usually obscure, partial, or confusing. "What could it mean?" In
more watered down modern examples, this may amount to merely a legend: "It's said that
the ghost of old man Krebs still wanders these halls."
4. Omens, portents, visions. A character may have a disturbing dream vision, or some
phenomenon may be seen as a portent of coming events. For example, if the statue of the
lord of the manor falls over, it may portend his death. In modern fiction, a character
might see something (a shadowy figure stabbing another shadowy figure) and think that it
was a dream. This might be thought of as an "imitation vision."
5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. Dramatic, amazing events occur,
such as ghosts or giants walking, or inanimate objects (such as a suit of armor or
painting) coming to life. In some works, the events are ultimately given a natural
explanation, while in others the events are truly supernatural.
6. High, even overwrought emotion. The narration may be highly sentimental, and the
characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror.
Characters suffer from raw nerves and a feeling of impending doom. Crying and
emotional speeches are frequent. Breathlessness and panic are common. In the filmed
gothic, screaming is common.
7. Women in distress. As an appeal to the pathos and sympathy of the reader, the female
characters often face events that leave them fainting, terrified, screaming, and/or sobbing.
A lonely, pensive, and oppressed heroine is often the central figure of the novel, so her
sufferings are even more pronounced and the focus of attention. The women suffer all the
more because they are often abandoned, left alone (either on purpose or by accident), and
have no protector at times.
8. Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male. One or more male
characters has the power, as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian, to demand that
one or more of the female characters do something intolerable. The woman may be
commanded to marry someone she does not love (it may even be the powerful male
himself), or commit a crime.
footsteps approaching
clanking chains
ruins of buildings
crazed laughter
10. The vocabulary of the gothic. The constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set
creates the atmosphere of the gothic. Here as an example are some of the words (in
several categories) that help make up the vocabulary of the gothic in The Castle of
Otranto: