Romanticism was an international artistic and philosophical movement in the late 18th to early 19th century that reacted against the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and order, championing imagination, nature, and the individual's subjective experience.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
hello and welcome to this brittle 10
video podcast on
Romanticism today lesson one historical
contexts and core principles of the Romantic
Movement before we begin I ask that you
give the material the time and the
attention that it deserves I reserve the
right to give you a pop quiz on any
homework assignment including this video
podcast you may also be held responsible
for this material on high value
assessment such as projects essays and
exams please resist the temptation to
multitask and close all of the programs
on your computer except those that you
might use for note
taking as you watch and listen take
notes stopping and replaying the video
as necessary be prepared to apply what
you've learned in this video to your
reading of the
begin we will start with a simple
question what is
Romanticism well to begin to understand
what it is we must first say what it is
love instead Romanticism was an
international artistic and philosophical
movement that flourished in the late
18th to early 19th century it
fundamentally redefined how people in
Western cultures thought about
themselves and about their world
and its influence on our lives today remains
immense Romanticism coincides with the
age of revolutions the period of vast
political social and economic upheaval
that includes the American Revolution
Revolution Romanticism was also a
reaction to the dramatic changes arising
out of the Industrial Revolution of the
centuries inspired by the Revolutionary
energy of these events romantic writers
consciously set out to transform not
only the theory and practice of their
art but the very way in which we
world indeed transformation was at the
heart of the Romantic Movement
Romanticism was an artistic and
philosophical reaction to the dominant
attit udes of the 17th and 18th
centuries these attitudes included
scientific observation of the outside
world logic and reason
pragmatism Universal experience elegance and
and
refinement Order rules
Traditions moderation and
restraint virtue and morality stability
and Harmony social hierarchy
aristocratic rule
the welfare of society as a whole and
nature as an instrument of man's will
these were the dominant attitudes of the
17th and the 18th centuries and
Romanticism presented a challenge to all of
them this video will address Three core
principles of
Romanticism they constitute the essence
of the movement and your understanding
of them will guide you through the
sequence that we're about to
begin these three principles are
individual let's take a look at the
imagination the imagination is at the
center of all things
romantic in its broadest sense
imagination is a factor in how we
perceive reality as our Minds attempt to
process and to understand the sensory
us as the Mind receives stimuli in the
form of touch taste smell Sight and
Sound imagination is a major part of the
meaning for the romantic imagination was
also the primary vehicle for the
creation of
art through the imagination the Romantic
writer could wield Creative Energy that
was Godlike in its
power for the romantics then the purpose
of literature was not to describe the
world as it was but rather as how it could
be let's take a look at the second core principle
nature for the romantics nature was a
product of the imagination distinct from
but related to the entities that existed
in the physical
world because it was the product of the
imagination nature meant different
artists for these artists nature could
be a subject or an image
a healing
power the dwelling place for the
Divine or a refuge from the harshness of
world in the 17th and the 18th centuries
nature was increasingly seen as
will the indust Industrial Revolution
only intensified this attitude as
technology made it possible to extract
more and more from the land with little
welfare in sharp contrast the romantics
untameable let's take a look at the
individual
in its emphasis on the imagination
Romanticism places great importance on
intuition Instinct and
emotion the Romantic poet William Blake
would capture this idea when he wrote
beauty this is not to say that the
romantics discarded the mental qualities
that were most prized by the previous
centuries reason and logic but rather
that these existed in a healthy tension
with intuition
Instinct and emotion to form the basis
consciousness for romantic writers human
consciousness is most Fully Alive under
solitude it is when we are alone that we
can think most deeply and be most
sensitive to the world around us
in its emphasis on Solitude romantic art
meditative a major moment in literary
history came in
1798 when the poet William Wordsworth
described poetry as the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings
Tranquility for Wordsworth who was one
of the foundational Romantic Poets
poetry was a synthesis of exuberant
meditation memory is at the center of
this process of individual experience
and reflection since our perception of
the world is limited and our memory of
the past is imperfect imagination is the
gaps this emphasis on individual
imagination and experience reverse the
ancient idea that art is a mirror to the
world for the romantics art does not
reflect the world outside it creates a world
within consequently romantic poetry is
often lyric poetry and we can assume
that the speaker in a given poem is
either the poet himself or someone who
represents the poet
Romanticism rejected the status quo and
saw the modern world's emphasis on rules
and order to be personally politically
and artistically limiting romantic art
is an art of defiance that emphasizes
experimentation here again we turned to
William Blake who wrote that I must
create a system or else be enslaved by another
man's in this way the Romantic artist
positions himself as a heroic Outsider
operating independently from the Society
part and because they viewed themselves
as heroic Outsiders romantic artists
often identified with those on the
margins of society and their art often
reacted to the social injustice and
time inspired by the Revolutions in
America and France romantic artists were
idealists who saw their work as a
that concludes this Brit 10 video
podcast on Romanticism in our next
podcast we'll build upon what you've
learned here by looking at some of the
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
