This trend is one of the main artistic phenomena in the culture of the 19th century in Russia, Europe and America. Romanticism as a literary trend originated at the end of the XVIII century, but reached its peak in the 1830s. From the beginning of the 1850s, the period began to decline, however, its threads stretch through the entire XIX century, giving the basis to such directions as symbolism, decadence and neo-romanticism.
The emergence of romanticism
The birthplace of the direction is Europe, in particular England and France, from where the name of this artistic direction - “romantisme” came from. This is explained by the fact that romanticism of the 19th century arose as a consequence of the Great French Revolution.
The revolution destroyed the entire pre-existing hierarchy, mixed society and social strata. The man began to feel loneliness and began to seek solace in gambling and other entertainment. Against this background, the idea arose that all life is a game in which there are winners and losers. The main character of each romantic work is a person who plays with rock, with fate.
What is romanticism?
Romanticism is all that exists only in books: incomprehensible, incredible and fantastic phenomena, at the same time coupled with the confirmation of a person through her spiritual and creative life. Mostly events unfold against the backdrop of expressed passions, all heroes have brightly manifested characters, often endowed with a rebellious spirit.
The writers of the romantic era emphasize that the main value in life is a person’s personality. Each person is a separate world full of amazing beauty. It is from there that all inspiration and sublime feelings are drawn, and also a tendency to idealization appears.
According to novelists, the ideal is an ephemeral concept, but nevertheless having a right to exist. The ideal is beyond all ordinary, therefore the main character, and his ideas are directly opposed to everyday relationships and material things.
Distinctive features
Features of romanticism as a
literary trend are in the main ideas and conflicts.
The main idea of ​​almost every work is the constant movement of the hero in physical space. This fact, as it were, reflects the confusion of the soul, its continuously current thoughts and, at the same time, changes in the world around it.
Like many artistic movements, romanticism has its own conflicts. Here, the whole concept is based on the complex relationships of the protagonist with the outside world. He is very egocentric and at the same time rebelling against the base, vulgar, material objects of reality, which in one way or another is manifested in the actions, thoughts and ideas of the character. The following literary examples of romanticism are most pronounced in this regard: Childe-Harold - the main character from the “Pilgrimage of Childe-Harold” Byron and Pechorin - from the “Hero of our time” Lermontov.
If we summarize all of the above, it turns out that the basis of any such work is the gap between reality and the idealized world, which has very sharp edges.
Romanticism in European literature
19th-century European romanticism is remarkable in that for the most part its works have a fantastic foundation. These are numerous fabulous legends, short stories and novels.
The main countries in which romanticism as a literary trend manifested itself most expressively are France, England and Germany.
This artistic phenomenon has several stages:
- 1801-1815 years. The beginning of the formation of romantic aesthetics.
- 1815-1830 years. The formation and flowering of the current, the definition of the main postulates of this direction.
- 1830-1848 years. Romanticism takes on more social forms.
Each of the above countries has made its own, special contribution to the development of this cultural phenomenon. In France, romantic
literary works were more political in color, writers were hostile to the new bourgeoisie. This society, according to French figures, ruined the integrity of the individual, its beauty and freedom of spirit.
In English traditions, romanticism has existed for a long time, but until the end of the XVIII century it did not stand out as a separate literary trend. English works, unlike French ones, are filled with Gothic, religion, national folklore, the culture of peasant and workers' societies (including spiritual ones). In addition, English prose and lyrics are filled with travels to distant lands and exploration of foreign lands.
In Germany, romanticism as a literary trend was formed under the influence of idealistic philosophy. The foundations were the individuality and freedom of man, oppressed by feudalism, as well as the perception of the universe as a single living system. Almost every German work is permeated with thoughts about the being of man and the life of his spirit.
Europe: examples of works
The most notable European works in the spirit of romanticism are the following literary works:
- the treatise “The Genius of Christianity”, the novel “Atal” and “Rene” by Chateaubriand;
- novels "Dolphin", "Corinna, or Italy" Germaine de Stael;
- the novel "Adolf" by Benjamin Constan;
- the novel "Confession of the son of the century" Musset;
- the novel "Saint-Mar" by Vigny;
- manifesto “Preface” to the work “Cromwell”, the novel “Notre Dame de Paris” by Hugo;
- the drama "Henry III and his court", a series of novels about the musketeers, "Count of Monte Cristo" and "Queen Margot" Dumas;
- novels Indiana, Wandering Apprentice, Horace, Consuelo George Sand;
- manifesto "Racine and Shakespeare" by Stendhal;
- poems "The Old Sailor" and "Christabel" by Coleridge;
- "Oriental poems" and "Manfred" Byron;
- Balzac's collected works;
- the novel "Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott;
- the tale "Hyacinth and Rose", the novel "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" Novalis;
- collections of short stories, tales and novels by Hoffmann.
Romanticism in Russian literature
Russian romanticism of the 19th century was born under the direct influence of Western European literature. However, despite this, he had his own characteristics, which were traced back in previous periods.
This artistic phenomenon in Russia fully reflected all the hostility of the leading workers and revolutionaries towards the ruling bourgeoisie, in particular, to its way of life - unbridled, immoral and cruel. Russian romanticism of the 19th century was a direct result of rebellious sentiments and anticipation of turning points in the history of the country.
In the literature of that time there are two directions: psychological and civil. The first was based on a description and analysis of feelings and feelings, the second - on the propaganda of the struggle with modern society. The general and main idea of ​​all novelists was that the poet or writer should behave according to the ideals that he described in his works.
Russia: examples of works
The most striking examples of romanticism in Russian literature of the 19th century are:
- the novels “Ondine”, “Prisoner of Chillon”, ballads “Forest Tsar”, “Fisherman”, “Lenora” by Zhukovsky;
- compositions "Eugene Onegin", "Queen of Spades" by Pushkin;
- "The Night Before Christmas" by Gogol;
- “Hero of our time” Lermontov.
Romanticism in American Literature
In America, the direction received a bit later development: its initial stage dates back to 1820-1830, the subsequent - 1840-1860 years of the XIX century. Both stages were exclusively influenced by civil unrest both in France (which served as the impetus for the creation of the United States) and directly in America itself (the war for independence from England and the war between the North and the South).
The artistic trends in American romanticism are represented by two types: abolitionist, advocating for liberation from slavery, and oriental, idealizing plantation.
American literature of this period is based on a rethinking of knowledge and genres captured from Europe and mixed with a peculiar way and pace of life on the still new and little known continent. American works are richly flavored with national intonations, a sense of independence and the struggle for freedom.
American romanticism. Examples of works
- The Alhambra cycle, the stories The Ghost Bridegroom, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving;
- the novel "The Last of the Mohicans" by Fenimore Cooper;
- the poem "Raven", the stories "Ligeya", "Golden Beetle", "The Fall of the House of Asher" and others by E. Alan Poe;
- novels “Scarlet Letter” and “House of the Seven Gables” by Gorton;
- novels “Taipei” and “Moby Dick” by Melville;
- the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stow;
- poetically shifted legends "Evangeline", "Song of Hiawatha", "Matchmaking of Miles Standish" Longfellow;
- a collection of "Leaves of Grass" by Whitman;
- the composition "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" Margaret Fuller.
Romanticism as a literary trend had a rather strong influence on musical, theatrical art and painting - it is enough to recall the numerous productions and paintings of those times. This happened mainly due to such qualities of the direction as high aesthetics and emotionality, heroism and pathos, chivalry, idealization and humanism. Despite the fact that the century of romanticism was short-lived, this did not affect the popularity of books written in the 19th century in the following decades - the works of literary art of that period are loved and revered by the public to this day.