READING MODULE 9By: GASPAR JULIO NAVARRO AMADOR25th / MAY / 2006
SUBJECT:
LITERARY CRITICISM OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
This paper is
focused on the period developed through the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, which is known as the Romantic Period. On the first hand, we will
pay attention to the context and the factors that made this separation from
previous tendencies possible. On the second hand, we will try to reflect the
main characteristics of this trend in the works of the most representative authors
of this period.
Firstly,
let us mention that this period has multiple interpretations, depending on each
individual. These interpretations can be seen as
points of views related to the different areas in which romanticism is
represented, such as art, literature, way of living, philosophy, etc.
In
the following paper, although there is a general view of the period, the object
is to centre on the literary context.
Thus,
this period is so culturally characteristic because of the widespread impact
that reached all
Romanticism
opens a new window towards the liberation of the mind. This relief from the
neoclassical established system of rules is translated,
for instance, in the possibility to project freely in a sheet, pentagram or in
canvas your imagination, your emotions. This relief of “subjectivity,
spontaneity and freedom from rules” (Reference
2)contrasts
with the previous period. From the beginning of Romanticism onwards there is a
general “feeling of solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs that
imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of and worship
of nature; and fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of
the middle ages”. (Reference
2). Nationalism becomes one of the most important points of the
period, inspired by Rousseau and Johann G. Von Herder, who express how local customs
and traditions would redraw the map of
This
way of thinking and behaviour is possible thanks to some relevant political
situations such as the French Revolution. This Revolution had in an intrinsic
way the feeling of Romanticism itself and vice versa. This was supposed to mean
the change and regeneration of the human race. From now on things are no longer
universal as they used to be. Everything is questioned and scientifically prove. The French Revolution was
symbolically considered as the Hebrew and Christian Apocalypse, in terms
of salvation and regeneration of the earth and human race. (Reference 3)
This supposed the major theme in romantic poets, although the influence that it
brought to them was that of failure. The most important issue of the Revolution
was that it dramatically failed, after four or five years of enthusiasm and
exaltation. The reflection of these feelings is seen in some romantic authors
such as Blake who “introduced the Giant Form that he names “Orc," the
spirit of Energy that bursts out in total political and spiritual revolution”;
or in Wordsworth, who “concluded that the French Revolution would fulfil the
millennial prophecy of the Book of Revelation and would bring into being a new
heaven and new earth”. (Reference 5) The support of the romantic writers
to the Revolution at the beginning was because of the “opportunities it seem to
offer for political and social change”(Reference 5).
However, what is reflected in their poems is
destruction disenchantment and despair. We can see reflected the impact of the
Revolution in W. Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge’s ‘Utopian’, a social thought in the wake of the French Revolution.
The
literary stream of Gothicism also influenced this
radical feeling, which was a window towards the supernatural starting over the
eighteen-century. It is a look back to medievalism in a contemporary context.
The gothic experiences were related to “enchanted
ancient castles, subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps,
screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards”, etc. All “connected with the
macabre, terrifying, horror, fantastic, supernatural”. (Reference 4) The
revival o gothic literature was Horace Walpole’s ‘The
Other
characteristic of this period is the interest for the foreign things in terms
of places, people, religions, philosophies, costumes, etc. This is called Romantic Orientalism. Orientalism connotes
foreignness and refers to the geography and culture of large parts of Asia,
North Africa and
Examples
of romantic English poets are William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. Although some of
their writings and works have been classified as
pre-romantic. For example Blake, Wordsworth or Coleridge.
Byron, P.B. Shelley, M. Shelley and J. Keats constitute another phase of
romanticism in
In
all romantic writers there are examples of the influences characteristics of
this period. For instance, poems about Nature such as those that explain the
environment and what relation has with the pass of time are
found in Blake (‘To Summer’), Wordsworth (‘To May’) or Keats (‘To
Autumn’). Examples of Nationalism and costumes and culture are
found in Blake (‘A New Jerusalem’), Keats (‘Lines on the Mermaid
Tavern’). There are also examples of feelings of freedom in relation to the
failure of the Revolution in W. Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge (‘Utopian’). We can see characteristics of
Oriental Romanticism in Blake (‘The Tyger’), in Wordsworth (‘An Arab of the
Bedouin Tribes), in Coleridge (‘Kubla Khan’), in Byron (‘Oriental Tales’ or
‘Don Juan’), in Keats (‘Endymion’ or ‘The Eve of Saint Agnes’) and in Mary
Shelley (‘Frankenstein’). (Reference 4)
We
find in the large literary work of these authors similar characteristics, which
reflect the direct dependence that exists between the author and the context,
which is the main source of influence for the author’s work. In this sense, if
we place the starting point of literary criticism in the works of all the
authors that have been mentioned above, we would reach
the purest meaning that the word Romanticism represents. Through these poems
and novels, every author expresses his or her own opinion and taste of what the
society and the culture that surrounds him or her evokes. Thus, the need and
the search of an ideal, which can sometimes only be reached
by means of written text or painted canvas, is what these authors have tried
and accomplished. They have reflected all the feelings that this period can
evoke through the ideals of the previous period, which are assimilated and
subsequently substituted or switched.
REFERENCES
1
- Dr. Vicente Forés, (Classnotes)
2 - Morner, Kathleen and
Ralph Rausch. NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms.
3
- Paul Brians, Department of English,
26th/05/2006
4
- Jack Voller, The
Literary Gothic 1995-2006
http://www.litgothic.com/index_fl.html
26th/05/2006
5
- Michael Eberle-Sinatra, Romanticism on the net –
Articles (by authors) 1996-2005
http://www.ron.umontreal.ca/index.shtml
26th/05/2006
6
- Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Romanticism – Wikipedia, the free enciclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
21st/05/2006
7
– W. W. Norton and Company, The Norton Anthology
of English Literature: The Romantic Age 2003-2006
http://www.wwnorton.com/nto/romantic/
21st/05/2006