10

10. Romanticism and its literary manifestations.

Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution

In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature

and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but can be detected even in changed attitudes towards children and education.

The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe

especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories

. People thought that there was something “divine” in nature, but it is “too big for our comprehension”.

The movement argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage.

The modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the mores of contemporary society.

lthough the movement is rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism,

the ideologies and events of the French Revolution laid the background from which both Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment emerged

The confines of the Industrial Revolution also had their influence on Romanticism, which was in part an escape from modern realities;

indeed, in the second half of the 19th century, "Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism

Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as heroic individualists and artists, whose pioneering examples would elevate society.

It also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art.

It also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art.

The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence

Characteristics of the romantic hero include introspection, the triumph of the individual over the "restraints of theological and social conventions

wanderlust, melancholy, misanthropy, alienation, and isolation

However, another common trait of the Romantic hero is regret for his actions, and self-criticism, often leading to philanthropy, which stops the character from ending tragically.

An example of this trait is Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Romantic hero first began appearing in literature during the Romantic period, in works by such authors as Byron, Percy Shelley, and Goethe, and is seen in part as a response to the French Revolution.

Classic literary examples of the romantic hero include Odysseus from The Odyssey, Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Byron's Don Juan and Chateaubriand's René, and Cooper's famous literary character "Hawkeye" (Natty Bumppo) of the Leatherstocking Tales.

The first horror story published in England in 1765 – Horace Walpole “The Castle of Otranto” - it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel (characterized by musicality of the verses, questions without answers)

initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century, with authors such as Charles Maturin, Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and Daphne du Maurier

Edgar Allan Poe: Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre.

The most known (important) literary works: 1818 – Mary Shelley „Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus”; 1847 - „Wuthering Heights”, Emily Brontë

1886 – “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.