Romanticism

Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual

movement that originated in late 18th
century Western Europe. In part a revolt
against aristocratic, social, and political
norms of the Enlightenment period and a
reaction against the rationalisation of
nature, in art and literature it stressed strong
emotion as a source of aesthetic
experience, placing new emphasis on such
emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe
experienced in confronting the sublimity of
nature. It elevated folk art, nature and
custom, as well as arguing for an
epistemology based on usage and custom.
was influenced by ideas of the
Enlightenment and elevated medievalism
elements of art and narrative perceived to
from the medieval period.

It
and
be

Caspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer

The ideologies and events of the French
looking out over the sea of mist a
Revolution are thought to have influenced the
picture often thought of as typically
movement. Romanticism elevated the
Romantic
achievements of what it perceived as
misunderstood heroic individuals and artists that altered society. It also legitimised the
individual imagination as a critical authority which permitted freedom from classical
notions of form in art (it stressed creativity rather than imitation in art). Nature rather
than the works of man is often a focus, as are emotions and dreams. The Romantic
movement, although an heir to the Enlightenment, tends to see itself as in opposition to
rationalism and systematisation.

Romanticism in British literature is mostly associated with the poets William

Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose co-authored book "Lyrical Ballads"
(1798) sought to reject Augustan poetry in favour of more direct speech derived from
folk traditions. Both poets were also involved in Utopian social thought in the wake of
the French Revolution. The poet and painter William Blake is the most extreme
example of the Romantic sensibility in Britain, epitomised by his claim I must create a
system or be enslaved by another man's. Blake's artistic work is also strongly
influenced by Medieval illuminated books.
Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment (from the German word Aufklrung, meaning
"Enlightenment") refers to the eighteenth century in European and American
philosophy, or the longer period including the seventeenth century and the Age of
Reason. It can more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement The
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Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as a means to establishing an authoritative

system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and logic, to allow philosophers to obtain
objective truth about the universe.
Inspired by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics,
Enlightenment thinkers argued that same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all
forms of human activity. Hence the Enlightenment is often closely linked with the
Scientific Revolution, for both movements emphasized empiricism, reason, science or
rationality, but applied here also with natural law to the ethical and governmental
spheres in exploration of the individual, society and the state. Its leaders believed they
would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality,
superstition, and tyranny which they imputed to the Dark Ages, though not from
religious belief. The Enlightenment is matched with the high baroque and classical
eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts; it receives modern attention as
being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period.
Excerpts from Immanuel Kants An Answer to the
Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed
immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's
understanding without guidance from another. This
immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of
understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know]
"Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the
motto of enlightenment.
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a
Immanuel Kant, who wrote
What is Enlightenment? in
proportion of men, long after nature has released them from
1784
alien guidance (natura-liter maiorennes), nonetheless gladly
remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves
as their guardians. It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my
understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet
for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay:
others will readily undertake the irksome work for me
Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his
natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Whoever threw them off
would still make only an uncertain leap over the smallest ditch, since he is
unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few have
succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and
pursuing a secure course
Nothing is required for this enlightenment, however, except freedom; and the freedom
in question is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all
matters.
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If it is now asked, "Do we presently live in an enlightened age?" the answer is, "No, but
we do live in an age of enlightenment." As matters now stand, a great deal is still
lacking in order for men as a whole to be, or even to put themselves into a position to
be able without external guidance to apply understanding confidently to religious
issues. But we do have clear indications that the way is now being opened for men to
proceed freely in this direction and that the obstacles to general enlightenment--to their
release from their self-imposed immaturity--are gradually diminishing. In this regard,
this age is the age of enlightenment
This spirit of freedom is expanding even where it must struggle against the external
obstacles of governments that misunderstand their own function. Such governments
are illuminated by the example that the existence of freedom need not give cause for
the least concern regarding public order and harmony in the commonwealth. If only
they refrain from inventing artifices to keep themselves in it, men will gradually raise
themselves from barbarism
I have focused on religious matters in setting out my main point concerning
enlightenment, i.e., man's emergence from self-imposed immaturity, first because our
rulers have no interest in assuming the role of their subjects' guardians with respect to
the arts and sciences, and secondly because that form of immaturity is both the most
pernicious and disgraceful of allThus, once nature has removed the hard shell from
this kernel for which she has most fondly cared, namely, the inclination to and vocation
for free thinking, the kernel gradually reacts on a people's mentality (whereby they
become increasingly able to act freely), and it finally even influences the principles of
government, which finds that it can profit by treating men, who are now more than
machines, in accord with their dignity.
I. Kant
Konigsberg in Prussia, 30 September 1784

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