European Romanticism

Romanticism is the movement of art and literature that began in the late 18th century and continued to Europe and America in the 19th century. This movement is contrary to classicism. The basic idea of ​​romanticism is that the reason can not explain everything. Compared to the age of enlightenment, the latter pay more attention to scientific and rational thinking, romanticism has a deeper appeal, an emotional directness of personal experience, and a distant relationship with imagination and desire I am seeking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most influential theoretical contributors to the American Renaissance and transcendence. Transcendental works are related to Romanticism in Europe in terms of idealism and exploring meaningful relationships with nature. However, they also strongly advocate the creation of a unique American culture. Originally in 1837 a formal speech at the Harvard Filibeta Kappa Association, American scholars began seeking the end of American cultural dependence on Europe. Due to this strong argument against the freedom of traditional knowledge, Emerson's speech was explained by Oliver Wendell Holmes as "Declaration of Independence of American Intellectuals." Emerson then continued analyzing the influence of intellectuals ("scholars") and his responsibility towards his compatriots. Therefore, the central theme of speech is to foster knowledge and culture, to make citizens a scholar.

In European literature, the term romanticism is often used to denote the era from the 1830s. European romantic times covered roughly the British Victorian era, but the UK Romantic date given above corresponds roughly to the German "Frühromantik". The Victorian era covered the era of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Various customs of Victorian poetry, such as Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburn, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, are more or less a continuation of the UK Romantic tradition. The Victorian era was also the heyday of the novel. Chales Dickens, Brontë sisters, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy all wrote masterpieces at this time.