Romanticism period was marked by musical, literary artistic, cultural and intellectual movement originating from Europe. Romantic period reached its peak between 1800 and 1850 and was characterized by strong emphasis on individualism and emotion as well as glorifying nature and the past as well as preference for medieval as opposed to classical (Morrow, 2011). These factors are attributed to components of modernity at the time such as industrial revolution, social and political norms of enlightenment age and scientific rationalization of nature. These aspects had substantial and complex impact on politics as romantic thinkers had strong influenced on radicalism, liberalism, nationalism and conservatism ideologies.
French revolution is the political context that marked the start of Romantic period in 1789, which focused on creating social and political freedom, brotherhood and equality. The aim was to create democracy and abolishing the power of the ruling class (Morrow, 2011). Therefore, even though romanticism was rooted in the German Sturm und Drung , it was also influenced by ideologies and events of French revolution. High value was assigned to individual and artistic heroic achievements and also fostered individual imagination.
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Literary context was marked by pre-Romantic poet William Cowper of 1785 who wrote that in the task ‘God made the country, and man made the town’ (Watson, 2014).. This demonstrates that Romantics loved and glorified nature especially natural areas that had been untouched by human intervention through industrial revolution and urbanization. They advocated for simple rural life where people lived in harmony with nature. They further considered childhood as ideal life not distorted by conventions and adult norms. It also elevated ancient customs and folk art in addition to reviving medievalism including its artistic and narrative elements believed to be medieval in attempt to escape early urban sprawl, population growth and industrialism.
Intense emphasis was placed on emotion such as horror, apprehension and terror as the genuine source of aesthetic experience. It emphasized individual’s rights to think and articulate his emotions in order deal with daily life. In this regard, it became important for artists to express feeling and ideas of people in reaction to the previous era of reason where rationale and played dominant part in the society.
References
Morrow, J. (2011). Romanticism and political thought in the early nineteenth century. The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Political Thought .
Watson, J. R. (2014). English Poetry of the Romantic Period 1789-1830 . Routledge.
