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Module B:
Texts and Ways of Thinking
Module B
In your answers you will be assessed on how well you:
demonstrate understanding of how particular ways of thinking have shaped and are
reflected in texts
sustain an extended composition appropriate to the question, demonstrating control
in the use of language.
Introduction to Elective 2: Romanticism
In this elective students explore texts which relate to ways of thinking characteristic of
Romanticism in the late 18th century until the mid 19th century. The Romantics valued the
imagination, individualism and idealism. Romanticism is typified by the search for meaning
through representations of the individuals relationship with the natural world, and wider social
and political contexts. Texts related to this period examine or affirm the power of the
imagination to inform, illuminate and transform human experience. Experimentation with ideas
and forms may reflect or challenge ways of thinking during this period.
In this elective, students are required to study at least three of the prescribed texts, two of
which must be print texts, as well as other texts of their own choosing. In their responding and
composing they explore, analyse, experiment with and critically evaluate their prescribed texts
and a range of other appropriate examples. Texts should be drawn from a range of contexts and
media, and should reflect the concerns of the Romantic period.
Context
The early romantic period coincides with that is often called the age of revolutions
including the American (1776) ands the rench (17!") revolutions# $t was an age of upheavals
in political% economic and social traditions# $t was the age that witnessed the initial
transformations of the $ndustrial &evolution# A revolutionary energy was at the core of
&omanticism% which 'uite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of
all art% (ut the very way we perceive the world#
&omanticism developed in a historical period characterised (y tur(ulent change% revolution%
conservative counterattac)% democratic idealism% dictatorships% improvements in technology%
and the )inds of suffering caused (y rapid and enthusiastic industrialisation# The romantics
wor)ed in the political and social conte*t of revolutions and change#
The revolutionary spirit unleashed demons of its own% with revolutionaries in rance
e*ecuting large num(ers of people in a period called the Terror# The romantics had to wor)
simultaneously with the pro(lems and the potential (enefits of the revolutionary spirit#
+ngland had anticipated the rest of +urope (y deposing its )ing in the 17th century# +nglish
,rotestantism struggled to e*press itself in ways that widened the limits of freedom of speech
and press# -ritain stayed politically calm compared to rance with .eorge# -ritish politics
reacted to repu(lican idealism (y (ecoming staunchly conservative# This conservatism (egan
to fray in the period 1!/012/% with increasing agitation from the people of middle and lower
class# 3owever% while -ritain remained saturated with class privileges and relatively pious%
rance was to (ecome after its own revolution the most classless and anticlerical state in
+urope# 4hile the power of religion and aristocracy in +ngland diminished gradually% in
rance they were violently uprooted#
The pressure for change was a conse'uence of the new middle class (the (ourgeoisie) and their
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demands fore power (ased on their (elief that they proved their merit# The romantics
concentrated their attac) on the heartlessness of (ourgeois li(eralism as well as the nature of
industrial society# $ndustrial society (rought new pro(lems5 soulless individualism% economic
egoism% utilitarianism% materialism and the cash ne*us artists and intellectuals attac)ed the
(ourgeoisie for their lac) of taste and their lac) of higher morality# A general trend was clear5
individualism% freedom and change replace community% authority and tradition as core
+uropean values# &eligion survived (ut was wea)ened and aristocracy (egan to lose their
stronghold# The aristocrats were unaware of the precariousness of their position which made
them overconfident% interested in da((ling the new ideas simply (ecause they were new ideas#
Definition
Romanticism, the European wide revolutionary movement between 1780 and 1830, redefined
the fundamental ways in which people thought about themselves and their world. The
paradigm shift from the Enlightenment emphasis on rationalism and science used to penetrate
the mysteries of nature provoked a shift in values towards insight through personal subjective
thought and feeling. Romanticism, set on the background of turbulent revolution, was impacted
by the rebellious spirit of the French Revolution, the freedom of the self from the American
War, and the dominance of the manufacturing industry on society, caused by the Industrial
revolution. The Romantics reacted negatively towards the technological advancement, and the
oppression of the societal structure enforced by the Enlightenment moving away from the cities
to idealising a more natural organic, simple life in the countryside with a connection to god.
This was yet another example of the paradigm shift as the Romantics sought faith through
pantheism rather than the organization of church and the conservatism connected to it. The
Romantics were centrally about freeing the individual, expressing emotion, solitude, a
connection with nature and god becoming symbols of self-realisation and self-improvement.
Because the vast shift of the years 1780 and 1830 hit different people in different ways, what
we get in the literature is a range of voices saying different, often contradictory things, (Paul
OFlinn) therefore the composers Samuel T. Coleridge, Emily Bronte, Michael Adept and
Eugene Delacroix convey their personal larger truths through their own experiences,
connecting to their audience through engaging the audiences imagination in a range of
innovative ways.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment is the emergence of man from his self-imposed infancy. Infancy is the inability
to use ones reason without guidance of another. It is self-imposed, when it depends n a
deficiency, not of reason, but of the resolves and courage to use it without external guidance.
Thus the watchword of the Enlightenment is !apere aude" #ave the courage to use ones own
reason"$
1 6ant
#istory is mans progressive struggle form rational culture.$
1 7oltaire
The intellect and logical thin)ing (ecame increasingly respected and this tendency reached its
height in the late 17
th
and early 1!
th
centuries# The movement (ecame )nown as 8eo1classicism
and was to see over a century of classical formality
The romantics were reacting against the past% the Age of &eason that last from 1660 to 17!0#
8eo1classicism was the dominant literary movement in +ngland during this period# $t sought to
revive the artistic ideals of the classical .reece and &ome# 9uring the period reason and
sensi(ility were valued and it was (elieved that reason was the )ey to all understanding# $t was
characterised (y emotional restraint% order% logic% technical precision% (alance% elegance of
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diction% and an emphasis of form over content% clarity% dignity and decorum# $t appeals were to
the intellect rather than to the emotions and it pri:ed wit over imagination#
They emphasised the importance of logic% proportion% (alance% restraint and o(;ectivity They
(elieved that human reason could (e used to com(at ignorance% superstition% and tyranny and
(uild a (etter world# Their principal targets were religion and the domination of society (y
hierarchy and aristocracy# &ationalism and empiricism are tools for the social reform5 the
pathway towards social engineering% away from the old order# The physical universe was
ultimately machine1li)e% so social organi:ation could (e fashioned after the machine# <cience
pronounced what society was to (ecome in view of mans natural needs#
=lassicism was (ased on the idea that nature and human nature could (e understood (y reason
and thought# They (elieved that nature was a self contained machine% li)e a watch% whose laws
of operation could (e rationally understood# To them the imagination% though essential to
literature% had to (e restrained (y reason and common sense#> Their idea was that classicism
held up tradition% often to the point of resisting change% (ecause tradition seemed a relia(le
testing grounds for those laws# 8ature is reasona(le% rational and can (e understood# ?an is a
part of 8ature% therefore man can (e understood#
rom the renaissance onwards the word romantic had often (een used negatively to condemn
overly imaginative artistic e*pression which did not accord with the =lassical purity of form
and su(;ect matter#
Individualism
Romanticism is the cult of the individual the cultural and psychological nativity of the self,
the inner spark of divinity that links one human being to another and all humans to the Larger
Truth. Artist became preoccupied with articulating the personal experiences they become, in
turn, a representative one. The artists takes on a quasi-religious status not only as a prophet and
moral leader, but also as a divinely inspired vehicle through which nature and the common man
find their voices.
The idea of mans natural goodness and the stress on emotion also contributed to the
development of Romantic individualism; they believed that what is special in a man is to be
valued over what is representative (the latter is often connected with the conventions imposed
on man by civilised society). If a man may properly express his unique emotional self because
its essence is good, he is also likely to assume also that its conflicts and corruptions are a
matter of great importance and a source of fascination t himself and others. The Romantics
delighted in self-analysis. The savage is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired
by both beliefs causes the heart to soar. Urban life and the commitment to getting and
sending generates a fear and distrust of the world.
Concern for the common man evolved not only from the democratic ideologies of the Age of
Revolution but also from a renewed interest in folk culture. The Folk Movement became the
way for an international language of human commonality, at whose centre stood the images of
home and the heart. This individuality translated into the revolution of feeling against form
the rejections of classical balance in favour of romantic asymmetry. Embracing the unknown
ad unafraid of the contraries of human existence, the Romantics overthrew the philosophical,
artistic, limitations of the enlightenment.
The Romantics focused on the individual perspective and not on the objective realty.
Meditations on landscapes and nature were a stage for the individual appreciation of the
picturesque and the sublime. The Romantics preferred the natural world, seeing
industrialisation as alienating.
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The Romantics rejection of the artificial was gathering opposition to established institutions
such as the monarchy and the Church. Some regarded church as stifling naturalness. Following
from these attitudes was an embracing of political and social revolution, and above all, a sense
that the individual must create his or her own relationship with the world.
Romantic poets were critical of earlier poets poetic diction, which was affected and artificial.
They preferred William K. Wimsatt: the primitive, the naive, the directly passionate, the
natural spoken word.
Wordsworth posited a very different view of poetry than was standard at the time, shifting the
centre of attention from the work as a reflection or imitation of reality to the artist, and the
artists relationship to the work. Poetry was considered an expressive art. Early romantics
suggested that the mirror was turned inward to reflect the poets state of mind.
Wordsworth argued that there should be no difference between the language of prose and that
of poetry. Wimsatt and Brooks: Wordsworths primitivism was a part of a general reaction,
setting in well before his own day, against the aristocratic side of Neoclassicism.
Coleridge saw the issue differently. to Coleridge it seemed more like an issue between
propriety and impropriety , congruity and incongruity. In effect he applied the classic norm of
decorum. According to Wimsatt and Brooks.
The romantics asserted the importance of the individual, the unique, even the eccentric.
Consequently they opposed the character typology of neoclassical drama. Romanticism created
its own literary types. The quintessential romantic figure was the wanderer, literally and
figuratively journeying in search of new lands, new places in the imagination and new vistas
for the soul. In style, the romantics preferred boldness over the preceding ages desire for
restraint, maximum suggestiveness over the neoclassical ideal of clarity, free experimentation
over the rules of composition, genre and decorum and they promoted the conception of the
artist as inspired creator over that of the artists as maker or technical master. Although
interest in religion and in the powers of faith were prominent during the Romantic period, the
romantics generally rejected absolute systems in favour of the idea that each person must create
the system by which they live.
The Romantics wrote about how man has no boundaries and endless possibilities. Who,
Emerson asked, can set boundaries to the possibilities of man. the romantics stressed the
human potential for social progress and spiritual growth.
Rousseau man is born free and everywhere he is in chains
Blake bathe in the waters of life
William Hazlitt: by combining the mirror with the lam, in order to demonstrate that the
poets reflects a world already bathed in an emotional light he has himself projected.
Novalis shared the English romantic belief that the poet was a member of a special breed,
exalted beyond any other human being.
Paul A. Cantor: the artist stands above society as a prophetic visionary, leading it into the
future, while free of its past and not engaged in its present activities in the sense of being
essentially unaffected and above all uncorrupted by them)
Music replaced painting as the art form considered most like poetry. M.H Abrams explains
that German writers of the 1790s considered music to be the art most immediately
expressive of spirit and emotion.
Jostein Gaarder: Schelling saw a world spirit in nature, but he saw the same world
spirit in the human mind. The natural and the spiritual are actually expressions of the same
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thing World spirit can thus be sought booth in nature and in ones own mind. Novalis
could therefore say the path of mystery leads inwards. He was saying that man bears the
whole universe within himself and comes closest to the mystery of the world by stepping
inside himself.
Imagination
Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
Imagination is a shaping or modifying power. Coleridge
The imagination was elevated to a position as the supreme faculty of the mind. This contrasted
distinctly with the traditional arguments for the supremacy of reason. They defined
imaginations as the ultimate shaping, or creative, power, the approximate human equivalent of
the creative powers of nature or even deity. It is dynamic, an active, rather than passive power,
with many functions. Imagination is the primary faculty for creative all art. It is also the faculty
that helps humans to constitute reality. By uniting both reason and feeling imagination is
celebrated as the ultimate synthesizing faculty, enabling humans to reconcile difference and
opposites in the world of appearance. The reconciliation of opposites was a central idea for the
romantics. Imagination is presumed to be the faculty that enables us to read nature as a
system of symbols.
Romantic writers began to experiment with non-classical genres, themes and settings. Instead
of neoclassical interest in intellectual satire, Romanticism valued and emphasised individual
passion and the genres that allowed this to breathe. Romanticism valued the subjective
imagination over the objective observation as the source and inspiration. It therefore picks up
the interest of many Romantics in things medieval settings, themes and narratives that are
fanciful and mysterious. The Romantics insisted of the importance of feeling and passion. They
felt that imagination was an amazing and visionary faculty allowing an insight into the truth of
things, both natural and supernatural. Dry reason or intellect couldnt provide this
extraordinary insight. Spontaneous feeling and the life of senses were newly important.
Emphasis on the imagination was accompanied by greater emphasis on the importance of
intuition, instincts and feelings and Romantics generally called for greater attention to the
emotions as a necessary supplement to purely logical reason. When this emphasis was applied
to the creative of literature a very important shift of focus occurred. Wordsworths definition of
all good poetry being the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings marls a turning point in
literary history, in romantic theory. Art was valuable not so much as a mirror of the external
world, but as a source of illuminating the world within. This led to a prominence for first-
person lyric poetry. The poetic speaker became less a persona and more the direct person of
the poet. The interior journey and the development of the self recurred everywhere as subject
material for the romantic artist. The artist-as-hero is a specifically Romantic type.
Idealism
The belief in and pursuit of %perfection as an attainable goal
&iving by or aspiring to high standards or principles
The move from the objective to the subjective was a result of Immanuel Kants idea that
human beings do not see the world directly, but through a number of categories. We only
understand our world through our human viewpoint. This leads to idealism, the belief that what
we call the external world is somehow created by our minds. The enlightenments emphasis
on the empirical deterministic universe let no room for the freedom and creativity of the human
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spirit. The romantic emphasis on art and imagination is a direct critical reaction to the
mechanical view of some enlightenment figures. The romantic emphasis on the individual was
reflected in ideas of self-realisation. They thought that the individual could directly understand
nature and that salvation is achieved by the solitary individual rather than through political
movements. Political idealism, especially in its hopes for the French Revolution as a new
dawn, inspired nearly all the Romantics.
4ith the traditional patterns of country life under threat and the cities regimenting individuals
into a mass wor) force% the poets responded (y placing the greatest value on individual
consciousness and its potential for creative imagination#
Idealism was a keynote for many of the Romantics.
Novalis:
the world becomes a dream and the dream becomes reality.
Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life. We are near waking when we dream
we are dreaming.
Knowledge is only one half. Faith is the other.
Jostein Gaarder:
The &omantics (elieved that only art could (ring us closer to the @ine*pressi(le#>
This yearning for something distant and unattainable was characteristic of the
Romantics. They longed for bygone eras for distant cultures like the Orient with its
mysticism.
It was once said that idleness is the ideal of genus, and indolence the virtue of the
Romantic. It was the duty of the Romantic to experience life or to dream himself
away from it. Day to day business could be taken care of by the philistines.
Blake:
Everything that lives is holy.
AristotleA
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
Throughout life teenagers have struggled against the constraints of society and have questioned
convention and authority. They do so in order find an identity separate to the one that society
has handed them. They are the biggest form of rebels, always imagining something more than
what theyve got.
It is my opinion that the teenager is the primary Romantic.
Teenagers lives are governed by revolt and rebellion and more than anything teens have the
gift to imagine a different life; life that they then idealise.
Romantics, in my opinion, are the generation that refused to give up hope
$dealism is more or less &omanticism as a whole# $t applies to everything as they were
completely idealistic in their plight% idealising all the ways in which they attempted to fight the
+nlightenment# To some &omantics% idealism was the view that when we consider the nature
our world around is the ultimate reality appears to e*ist in pur minds rather than the material
world# This view suggests that a mental process (the imagination) s needed to interpret the
world#
,ictures'ue was an aesthetic category that arose and which lay (etween the (eautiful and the
su(lime# $t set out to view real landscapes in a painterly way# These scenes were full of variety
and curious details% (ut were not sere (li)e (eautiful) or awe1inspiring (li)e su(lime)
<u(lime was associated with landscapes that induced feelings of awe% terror and wonder# $t was
a reaction to the emphasis on clarity and precision that held sway during the Age of &eason#
Edmund Burke: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the
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Beautiful
Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say,
whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in
a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the
strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.
In Texts
$dealism in nature is represented throughA imagery5 tone5 images of (eauty and natures gifts5
presence of god# $t is represented as a nurturer of the human spirit# $dealism in man is
represented as humanity striving to (ecome (etter wiser and compassionate# $dealism of the
self improvement of the individual% offered through spiritual insight% and engages in a
reciprocal relationship with nature#
Nature
Nature meant many things to the Romantics. It was a work of art, constructed by a divine
imagination, in emblematic language Nature as a healing power, nature as a source of subject
and image, nature as a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilisation, including artificial
language the prevailing views accord nature the status of an organically unified whole. It was
viewed as organic, rather than as a system of mechanical laws. Romanticism displaced the
rationalist view of the universe as a machine with the analogue of an organic image. Romantics
gave a greater attention to describing natural phenomena accurately and to capturing sensuous
nuance. Romantic nature poetry was essentially poetry of meditation.
Nature is apprehended by the romantics not only as an exemplar and source of vivid physical
beauty but as a manifestation if spirit in the universe as well. Romantics viewed nature as
mysterious and ever changing, living organism, whose laws we will never fully understand.
A love of nature and natural things, which amounted in some to Nature-worship was key to
many Romantics. Their rejection of urban life was often a positive attitude that in Nature lay an
ideal state, free from artificial aspects of civilisation. To be alone in the wild, lonely places was
for the romantics to be near heaven.
William Cullen Bryan:
speaks a various language
Thomas Hampson:
For the romantic, nature was a constant companion and teacher both benign and
tyrannical. She became the stage in which the human drama was played, the context in
which man came to understand his place in the universe, the transforming agent that
harmonized the individual soul with what the Transcendentalists would call the Over-
Soul. Throughout all of Romantic literature, music and art, Nature is a dynamic
presence, a character who speaks in a language of symbols at once mysterious and
anthropomorphic, who engages man in a dialogue with the life force itself.
Wordsworth:
believed that all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. He
rejected the neoclassical idea of the appropriate subject for serious verse and turns to
the simplicities of rustic life because in that condition the passions of men are
incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature
Jostein Gaarder:
Rousseau proposed the catchphrase, we should return to nature. For nature is good,
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and man in by nature good; it is civilisation which ruins him. Rousseau also believed
that the child should be allowed to remain in its naturally innocent state as long as
possible. It would not be wrong to say that the idea of the intrinsic value dates from the
Enlightenment.
The theme of unrequited love was introduced as early as 1774 by Goethe in his novel
The Sorrows of Young Werther. The book ends with young Werther shooting himself
The suicide rate rose after the publication of the novel, and for a time the book was
banned in Denmark and Norway
@<trong emotions were involved>
=olderidge
@+*amine nature accurately% (ut write from recollection% and trust more to the
imagination than the memory#>
Rousseau:
Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
Byron:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods%
There is a rapture on the lonely shore%
There is society% where none intrudes%
-y the deep sea% and music in its roarA
$Bll wal) where my own nature would (e leadingA $t ve*es me to choose another guide#
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Ways of Thining
1. Scientific, religious, philosophical and economic paradigms relating to the
Romantic period have shaped ad are reflected in literature and others
texts
2. Romanticism is typified by the search for meaning through
representations of the individuals relationship ith the nature, social and
political orlds.
!. Texts related to the Romantic period examine or affirm the poer of the
imagination to inform, illuminate and transform human experience.
". #xperimentation ith ideas and form may reflect or challenge ays of
thin$ing during the period.
Economic
The Industrial Revolution was not a violent or drastic change. This specific time period was an
era of rapid development, roughly between the start of the 18
th
century and the middle of the
19
th
century. Machine production replaced hand manufacturing and the work force was
concentrated in factories. England changed from primarily agricultural economy to an urban
advanced society, which in turn saw a move from people working primarily on the land, to
people working in manufacturing.
This destabilized many previous accepted processes as the creation of utilities challenged the
traditional ways of doing things. New methods of manufacturing meant things could be
produced far cheaper and quicker than before. The increase in consumption due to this ease in
led to job opportunities in cities, causing a drift from the rural to the urban areas. This was a
massive change as the population condensed, and the previous traditional rural way of life
adapted to the bustling city life. The Industrial Revolution led to the increase in the middle
class that gave strength to the economy. Altogether the Industrial Revolution challenged the
previous accepted processes and tradition by developing so drastically technologically.
Religious
During the Romantic era Religion was aestheticized (pleasant/pretty)
The Romantics felt free to draw on religious imagery and allusion but without pressure to be
conventionally dutiful.
Romanticism saw religion as an expression of the fundamental impulse of the human spirit.
The approach to religion during the Romantic period involved a movement away from to
powerful influences of time: the soulless rationalism of the Enlightenment era, and the
impending heartless encroachment of Science, especially by means of industrialisation, on
the human condition.
Romantics generally rejected absolute systems, such as religion, in favour of the idea that each
person must create their own systems by which to live.
Many Romantics subscribed to the doctrine of pantheism, the belief that the universe is an
organic whole and the lows that govern it are God. Therefore, God is manifest through nature.
Scientific
<cience has always (een more international than art#
+lectricity was a fashiona(le game# ,u(lic demonstrations of the powers of electricity (ecame
e*ceedingly popular and profita(le# There was a deepening curiosity a(out nature% a(out
man)ind a% a(out society and its historical past# $n all studies there was a greater precision and
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an increased reliance on o(servation% a growing detachment from the intellectual attitudes of
the past# There were scores if other men of great a(ility% e*ploring or indicating new worlds of
)nowledge and understanding# And yet a population produced this wealth of science and art
and scholarship far less than that of modern Condon#
Philosophical
Philosophically romanticism represents a shift from the objective to the subjective.
In general terms the Romantic favours:
Variety over uniformity
The infinite over the finite
Nature over culture, convention and artifice
The organic over the mechanical
Freedom over the constraint, rules and limitations
In human terms, the Romantic prefers:
The unique individual to the average man
The free creative genius to the prudent man of good sense
The particular community or nation to humanity at large
Mentally, the Romantics prefer:
Feeling to thought
Emotion to calculation
Imagination to literal common sense
Intuition to intellect
O for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts.
- Keats
%onclusions
The romantic emphasis on the individual was reflected in its fascination with self-definition,
self-invention and self-expression
The objects of knowledge are in some way dependent on the activity of the mind
Nature is power, inscrutability (mystique), transcendence and it yields symbols and metaphors
that connect humanity with the absolute
The Romantic Movement saw the elevation of the imagination to the primary faculty of the
mind. This contrasted directly with the Enlightenment argument that reason was paramount
Through a greater indulgence in emotionalism and Nature the individual is morally improved.
This is achieved by way of an increased sensitivity to feelings ad awareness of the world
around them
In an era of revolutionary transformation on many social an political fronts, Romanticism was
itself revolutionising the world of art, music and literature
Philosophically, romanticism represents a shift from the objective to the subjective; from an
emphasis on rationalism and empiricism to a celebration of diversity and uniqueness
To the romanticist, an understanding of truth and beauty lies in the heart of man, where ideas
are felt as sensations rather than thoughts
It is through nature, not society and its constructs, that the standards fro beauty and morality
are revealed.
Imagination is defined as the ultimate shaping or creative power. It is dynamic, active (rather
than passive) and is the primary faculty that helps humans constitute reality and create all art.
The reconciliation of opposites is a central idea for the Romantics,
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Characteristics
The #veryday
The attitude of many of the romantics to the everyday, social world around them was complex.
They advanced certain realistic techniques through down-to-earth characters everyday
language, colloquialisms or through popular literary forms. Social realism was usually inferior
to imaginative suggestion, and what was most important were the ideals suggested of
simplicity or innocence. Artists often turned for their symbols in domestic rather than exotic
sources.
The #xotic
Just as Romantics responded to the longing of people for a distant past, so they provided
images of distant places. The distances need not be terribly great: Spain was a favorite "exotic"
setting for French Romantics, for instance. North Africa and the Middle East provided images
of "Asia" to Europeans. Generally anywhere south of the country where one was resided was
considered more relaxed, more colorful, more sensual.Various forms of the exotic in time and
or play also gained favour. The romantics were also fascinated with the realms of existence that
were prior to or opposed to the order conceptions of the objective reason.
Romantic fascination with the old and exotic was stemmed into an attraction to the
supernatural, bizarre or nightmarish.
There was a fascination with other cultures, different in wither time or distance: the old and the
primitive, things medieval or Gothic, Oriental, alien or vanished.
The &othic
The first was Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1765), set in a haunted castle and containing
various mysterious apparitions such as a gigantic mailed fist. This sort of thing was
popularized by writers like Ann Radcliffe and M. L. Lewis (The Monk) and eventually spread
abroad to influence writers like Eugne Sue (France) and Edgar Allan Poe (the U.S.). Rejecting
the Enlightenment ideal of balance and rationalism, readers eagerly sought out the hysterical,
mystical, passionate adventures of terrified heroes and heroines in the clutches of frightening,
mysterious forces.
#motion
The other influential characteristic of the Gothic romance was its evocation of strong, irrational
emotions--particularly horror. Whereas Voltaire and his comrades had abhorred "enthusiasm"
and strove to dispel the mists of superstition; the Gothic writers evoked all manner of irrational
scenes designed to horrify and amaze. Romantic writers generally also prized the more tender
sentiments of affection, sorrow, and romantic longing.
Symbolism
Symbolism and myth were given great prominence in the Romantic conception of art. In the
romantic view, symbols were the human visual correlatives of the nature emblematic language.
They were valued because they could simultaneously suggest many things and thus be
superior. There was a desire to express the inexpressible, the infinite, through the available
resources of language that led to symbol at one level and myth at another.