Reason or Romanticism

As a literary and artistic term, romanticism is used to describe the profound shift in Western attitudes to human thought and creativity that dominated much of European culture during the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries—and which has somehow shaped or influenced all subsequent developments in literature and art ever since.  As a movement, romanticism revolted against the Enlightenment’s heavy reliance on reason and focused attention on the more mysterious emotional and psychological experiences of human existence.  Similarly, in rebelling against the Enlightenment’s preference for social (and generally formal) activity, romanticism emphasized the freedom of individual expression, and thus spontaneity, sincerity, and originality became new standards in literary and artistic productions (replacing decorum, convention, and the imitation of classical models favored by Enlightenment writers).  Believing that the Enlightenment concept of creation was mechanical, impersonal, and artificial, romantic writers and artists conceived of a universe more mysterious and less knowable.  They celebrated the significance of the individual and the boundlessness of the human imagination, and in so doing they placed their trust in intuition and emotion.  The restrained balance valued in 18^th century culture was abandoned in favor of emotional intensity, often taken to extremes of rapture, nostalgia (for childhood or the historical past), horror, melancholy, or sentimentality.  Some romantic writers and artists cultivated the appeal of the exotic, the bizarre, or the macabre; almost all showed an interest in the non-rational realms of dream and delirium, folk superstition, myth, and legend.  Rather than by following rules and external structures and forms (social orientation), they created art by following their imaginative inspiration (individual orientation) and preferred to develop more organic principles of form, thus embracing innovation rather than tradition.

              One of the most characteristic aspects of romanticism is the trust in nature and natural goodness (including the natural goodness of the individual).  Individuals are born into a “state of nature” and are slowly corrupted by civilization, especially by urban life.  To cleanse themselves, individuals must return to nature or a more natural state.  As a result, romantic writers and artists hold great admiration for primitive states (“the noble savage”) and all forms of innocence, especially that of children. 

Reason                                                                                    Emotion

Decorum, Rules, and Convention                                Originality, Spontaneity

External Forms and Structures                                    Organic Structure

Imitation                                                                      Inspiration

Tradition (traditional meters)                                       Innovation (free verse)

Society and Social Activity                                          The Self and Individual Activity

The Formal Garden                                                     The Forest or Wilderness

The Experts                                                                 Intuition and Self-Reliance

Interest in the Here-and-Now                                      Interest in the Distant and the Exotic

The Civilized                                                               The Primitive

The Artist as Student                                                   The Artist as Outcast