1、Romanticism,浪漫主义,A Definition,It rose in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In contrast to classicism it is associated with imagination and creation of individuality.Romantic writers attach great importance to the portrayal of figures of distinctive characters. They reproduce life in their wri
2、tings according to their ideal and prefer imaginative, even fantastic vision to restriction of objective depiction, passion to elegance, and irregular beauty to perfect proportion. (See Textbook P.2),I. Background,As an approach in literary creation, romanticism is ever present in literature of all
3、times. As a literary trend or movement, it occurred and developed in Europe and America at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries against the historical background of the Industrial Revolution around 1760 and the French Revolution (1789-1799).,Romantic,The term “Romantic” as a designation for a sch
4、ool of literature opposed to the Classic was first used by the German critic Friedrich Schlegel(1772-1892) at the beginning of the 19th century. From Germany, this meaning was carried to England and France.Romanticism marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from th
5、e Neoclassicism and formal orthodoxy of the past.,II. Characteristics,1. A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.2. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense.3. The world is not regarded as a ticking watch made by God but a livin
6、g, breathing being.,4. They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority.5. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted each person to be free to develop and express his own inner thoughts. 6. They cherished strong interest in the past, especially th
7、e medieval.,7. They were attracted by the wild, irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange.,III. American Romanticism,1) Background,Romanticism was extremely influential in rising America.America had a strong spiritual tradition.Romanticism was very comfortable with Ameri
8、can spiritual heritage and its ideals of democracy and equality.Romanticism stretched from the end of the 18th century to the Civil War.,As America was striving for political, economic, and cultural independence from Britain, radical changes took place in all aspects of American life:Burgeoning indu
9、strialism, great immigration, westward expansion, etc.,2) Distinct features,American romantics tended to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain.American romanticism presented an entirely new experience alien to European culture.The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, th
10、e myth of a New Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage were just a few examples of the native material for an indigenous literature.,American romanticism produced a feeling of “newness” which inspired the romantic imagination.Early American romanticism was best represented by New England poets William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882) in poetry, and James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851) and Washington Irving(1783-1859) in fiction.,
