0:03 hello and welcome to this brittle 10
0:05 video podcast on
0:09 Romanticism today lesson one historical
0:11 contexts and core principles of the Romantic
0:16 Movement before we begin I ask that you
0:18 give the material the time and the
0:20 attention that it deserves I reserve the
0:22 right to give you a pop quiz on any
0:25 homework assignment including this video
0:27 podcast you may also be held responsible
0:29 for this material on high value
0:32 assessment such as projects essays and
0:35 exams please resist the temptation to
0:37 multitask and close all of the programs
0:39 on your computer except those that you
0:42 might use for note
0:44 taking as you watch and listen take
0:46 notes stopping and replaying the video
0:49 as necessary be prepared to apply what
0:50 you've learned in this video to your
0:52 reading of the
0:58 begin we will start with a simple
1:00 question what is
1:02 Romanticism well to begin to understand
1:05 what it is we must first say what it is
1:15 love instead Romanticism was an
1:17 international artistic and philosophical
1:20 movement that flourished in the late
1:23 18th to early 19th century it
1:26 fundamentally redefined how people in
1:27 Western cultures thought about
1:30 themselves and about their world
1:32 and its influence on our lives today remains
1:40 immense Romanticism coincides with the
1:44 age of revolutions the period of vast
1:47 political social and economic upheaval
1:49 that includes the American Revolution
1:55 Revolution Romanticism was also a
1:57 reaction to the dramatic changes arising
1:59 out of the Industrial Revolution of the
2:07 centuries inspired by the Revolutionary
2:09 energy of these events romantic writers
2:12 consciously set out to transform not
2:13 only the theory and practice of their
2:15 art but the very way in which we
2:23 world indeed transformation was at the
2:25 heart of the Romantic Movement
2:27 Romanticism was an artistic and
2:29 philosophical reaction to the dominant
2:31 attit udes of the 17th and 18th
2:34 centuries these attitudes included
2:36 scientific observation of the outside
2:40 world logic and reason
2:44 pragmatism Universal experience elegance and
2:45 and
2:48 refinement Order rules
2:50 Traditions moderation and
2:55 restraint virtue and morality stability
2:58 and Harmony social hierarchy
3:00 aristocratic rule
3:03 the welfare of society as a whole and
3:06 nature as an instrument of man's will
3:09 these were the dominant attitudes of the
3:11 17th and the 18th centuries and
3:14 Romanticism presented a challenge to all of
3:21 them this video will address Three core
3:23 principles of
3:25 Romanticism they constitute the essence
3:27 of the movement and your understanding
3:28 of them will guide you through the
3:30 sequence that we're about to
3:34 begin these three principles are
3:41 individual let's take a look at the
3:49 imagination the imagination is at the
3:52 center of all things
3:55 romantic in its broadest sense
3:57 imagination is a factor in how we
4:00 perceive reality as our Minds attempt to
4:02 process and to understand the sensory
4:13 us as the Mind receives stimuli in the
4:18 form of touch taste smell Sight and
4:21 Sound imagination is a major part of the
4:30 meaning for the romantic imagination was
4:32 also the primary vehicle for the
4:34 creation of
4:36 art through the imagination the Romantic
4:38 writer could wield Creative Energy that
4:42 was Godlike in its
4:45 power for the romantics then the purpose
4:47 of literature was not to describe the
4:50 world as it was but rather as how it could
4:58 be let's take a look at the second core principle
5:07 nature for the romantics nature was a
5:09 product of the imagination distinct from
5:12 but related to the entities that existed
5:14 in the physical
5:16 world because it was the product of the
5:18 imagination nature meant different
5:26 artists for these artists nature could
5:30 be a subject or an image
5:31 a healing
5:34 power the dwelling place for the
5:38 Divine or a refuge from the harshness of
5:48 world in the 17th and the 18th centuries
5:51 nature was increasingly seen as
6:00 will the indust Industrial Revolution
6:02 only intensified this attitude as
6:04 technology made it possible to extract
6:06 more and more from the land with little
6:14 welfare in sharp contrast the romantics
6:22 untameable let's take a look at the
6:30 individual
6:32 in its emphasis on the imagination
6:34 Romanticism places great importance on
6:38 intuition Instinct and
6:40 emotion the Romantic poet William Blake
6:42 would capture this idea when he wrote
6:50 beauty this is not to say that the
6:52 romantics discarded the mental qualities
6:53 that were most prized by the previous
6:56 centuries reason and logic but rather
6:58 that these existed in a healthy tension
7:00 with intuition
7:03 Instinct and emotion to form the basis
7:12 consciousness for romantic writers human
7:14 consciousness is most Fully Alive under
7:23 solitude it is when we are alone that we
7:25 can think most deeply and be most
7:28 sensitive to the world around us
7:36 in its emphasis on Solitude romantic art
7:44 meditative a major moment in literary
7:46 history came in
7:49 1798 when the poet William Wordsworth
7:51 described poetry as the spontaneous
7:53 overflow of powerful feelings
8:00 Tranquility for Wordsworth who was one
8:02 of the foundational Romantic Poets
8:05 poetry was a synthesis of exuberant
8:14 meditation memory is at the center of
8:16 this process of individual experience
8:18 and reflection since our perception of
8:20 the world is limited and our memory of
8:23 the past is imperfect imagination is the
8:30 gaps this emphasis on individual
8:33 imagination and experience reverse the
8:35 ancient idea that art is a mirror to the
8:38 world for the romantics art does not
8:40 reflect the world outside it creates a world
8:48 within consequently romantic poetry is
8:51 often lyric poetry and we can assume
8:53 that the speaker in a given poem is
8:55 either the poet himself or someone who
8:58 represents the poet
9:05 Romanticism rejected the status quo and
9:08 saw the modern world's emphasis on rules
9:10 and order to be personally politically
9:14 and artistically limiting romantic art
9:17 is an art of defiance that emphasizes
9:29 experimentation here again we turned to
9:31 William Blake who wrote that I must
9:34 create a system or else be enslaved by another
9:42 man's in this way the Romantic artist
9:45 positions himself as a heroic Outsider
9:48 operating independently from the Society
9:56 part and because they viewed themselves
9:58 as heroic Outsiders romantic artists
10:00 often identified with those on the
10:03 margins of society and their art often
10:05 reacted to the social injustice and
10:13 time inspired by the Revolutions in
10:15 America and France romantic artists were
10:17 idealists who saw their work as a
10:38 that concludes this Brit 10 video
10:40 podcast on Romanticism in our next
10:42 podcast we'll build upon what you've
10:43 learned here by looking at some of the
