In the 1800’s, the word “romance” was not used as it is today. The American Scholar A.O. Lovejoy once observed that the word 'romantic ' has come to mean so many things that, by itself, it means nothing at all. Contradictory to the previous statement, F.L. Lucas counted 11,396 definitions of the word, and synonymous usage for ‘romantic’ show that it is perhaps the most remarkable example of a term that can mean many things in accordance to personal and individual needs (Introduction to Romanticism). Romanticism was a literary movement that made its way through Europe, the United States, and Latin America.
The word romanticism has a complex and interesting history. In the Middle Ages 'romance ' denoted the new vernacular languages derived …show more content…
At any rate, quite early in the 18th century one can discern a definite shift in sensibility and feeling, particularly in relation to the natural order and nature. This, of course, is hindsight. When Keats, Coleridge and Wordsworth, for instance, are read, it gradually becomes aware that many of their sentiments and responses are foreshadowed by what has been described as a 'pre-romantic sensibility ' (Introduction to Romanticism). The movement lasted about eighty years, and only made its way into France in the 1820’s. Before romanticism hit the literary world, most writing was of classic descent. Romanticism 's essential spirit was one of revolt against an established order of things-against precise rules, laws, dogmas, and formulas that characterized Classicism in general and late18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It focused on imagination rather than reason, and emotions rather than logic with an emphasis on the examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities (The Romantic …show more content…
There are many themes in Romanticism; some of the most prevalent include the struggling hero, consisting of the notion of a hero that struggles against impossible odds; a Faust, or a very old story that has varying versions over the course of several centuries; nature, which was viewed as “idealized, magical and divine,”; the supernatural, most famously used by Edgar Allan Poe, a literary master of Romantic Horror; the exotic, wrote of distant, mysterious faraway places; and the middle ages, filled with damsels in distress, brave knights, kings, and demonic magicians (Themes of Romantic Literature and
The word romanticism has a complex and interesting history. In the Middle Ages 'romance ' denoted the new vernacular languages derived …show more content…
At any rate, quite early in the 18th century one can discern a definite shift in sensibility and feeling, particularly in relation to the natural order and nature. This, of course, is hindsight. When Keats, Coleridge and Wordsworth, for instance, are read, it gradually becomes aware that many of their sentiments and responses are foreshadowed by what has been described as a 'pre-romantic sensibility ' (Introduction to Romanticism). The movement lasted about eighty years, and only made its way into France in the 1820’s. Before romanticism hit the literary world, most writing was of classic descent. Romanticism 's essential spirit was one of revolt against an established order of things-against precise rules, laws, dogmas, and formulas that characterized Classicism in general and late18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It focused on imagination rather than reason, and emotions rather than logic with an emphasis on the examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities (The Romantic …show more content…
There are many themes in Romanticism; some of the most prevalent include the struggling hero, consisting of the notion of a hero that struggles against impossible odds; a Faust, or a very old story that has varying versions over the course of several centuries; nature, which was viewed as “idealized, magical and divine,”; the supernatural, most famously used by Edgar Allan Poe, a literary master of Romantic Horror; the exotic, wrote of distant, mysterious faraway places; and the middle ages, filled with damsels in distress, brave knights, kings, and demonic magicians (Themes of Romantic Literature and