What is romanticism? Nothing arises, as they say, from nothing. Every phenomenon has a background. So romanticism arose on some basis, namely, against the backdrop of the French Revolution.
If you compare the period of classicism and the time of romanticism, you may get the impression that people were simultaneously tired of Greek heroes and gods - and they remembered their mythology. A man of this era acutely felt the need to touch national roots as close as possible.
The world of folk traditions most closely matches the mysterious worldview of romanticism - beautiful and mysterious, contrasted with the real world.
The human soul has become the subject of the most important and intense “study” of romantic creators. The world is simply huge, and the person in it is very small, its feelings are too fleeting ... In order to “stop the moment” of the movements of the human soul, one cannot always get by with a symphony, poem or opera with their monumentality - the “tiny” genres that romantics raise are much more convenient on the shield. The era of romanticism changes the idea of music - it was at this time that composers first appeared, whose main “calling card” was songs.
The symphony and opera become different - they no longer follow the strict canons of classicism.
In the works of writers, poets, artists and musicians as early as the 18th century, one could see what romanticism was. The interest in the human personality brings romanticism to the darkest and most secret depths: obsession, madness, rejection of generally accepted orders and norms ... Thus, images of romantic villains with their dark thoughts are born - not without, however, attractiveness ...
Romanticism in literature
If not for the events of those times, we would never have known such a direction in literature as romanticism. For the first time in this field of art, he arose in Germany, in the circle of philosophers and writers of the Jena school (Ludwig Thicke, V. G. Wackenroder, the Schlegel brothers, Novalis).
The philosophy of romanticism was precisely systematized in the works of F. Schelling and F. Schlegel. In its further development, German romanticism shows interest in mythological and fairy-tale motifs, which was especially pronounced in the work of Hoffmann, the Grimm brothers.
A prominent representative of English romanticism is Byron. His work is thoroughly imbued with the pathos of protest and the struggle with the modern world, the singing of individualism and freedom. Also to the romanticism of England is the work of John Keats, Shelley, William Blake.
What is romanticism in other European countries? In France, for example, this direction was represented by: Chateaubriand, Lamartine, J. Steel, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimet, Alfred de Vigny, Georges Sand. In Italy - A. Manzoni, N.W. Foscolo, Leopardi. In Poland - Juliusz Slovacki, Adam Mickiewicz, Ciprian Norwid, Sigmund Krasinsky. In the USA - Fenimore Cooper, Henry Longfellow, Washington Irving, W.K. Bryant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville.
Freedom from any classical conventions reigned in Russian romanticism; a romantic drama, a ballad, was created. A new idea of the meaning and essence of poetry was established, which was recognized as an independent sphere of life, an exponent of ideal, higher human aspirations.
The early poetry of the well-known A.S. Pushkin also developed in the framework of romanticism. The peak of Russian romanticism is the poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov. The philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev is both the completion and, as it were, the overcoming of Russian romanticism.
What is romanticism in the mysterious works of writers? This era loves everything mysterious and gloomy - it was this period that spawned a Gothic romance with its ancient castles, terrible secrets of the past, inhabited by ghosts.
Romanticism was destined to completely exhaust itself, figuratively degenerating into cliches that were ridiculed - and thus give way to other artistic movements.
To this day, they call a romantic a man who, contrary to everything, believes in his lofty ideals.