Movement

Romanticism

Also Known As The Romantic Movement
Romantic and Transcendentalist Movements

A literary and artistic movement, centered in Europe, that reacted against Enlightenment rationalism and neoclassical restraint by prizing individual emotion, the imagination, nature and, in many of its writers, a nostalgic or idealized version of the medieval past. In English poetry it is most associated with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats; in the novel, the Gothic strain of the period and later, continental figures such as Victor Hugo carried Romantic concerns into prose. Its emphasis on subjective feeling over inherited convention shaped nearly every literary movement that followed it, including the Realism that in part defined itself against it.

Facts
Disputed
Period, From (Year)
from 1789 2
Literary historians differ on a starting date. Some fix it to a political event, the French Revolution of 1789, on the reasoning that Romanticism is inseparable from its political moment; English-language literary history more often points to the 1798 joint publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads as the movement's effective English start. Both dates are in real scholarly use, not interchangeable, and neither commands universal agreement.
Period, To (Year)
to 1837 2
Commonly closed at the death of Sir Walter Scott (1832) or the accession of Queen Victoria (1837) in English literary history, but continental Romanticism is generally read as continuing later, and no single end date is agreed across the movement's several national literatures.
Core Stance
Rebellion 1
Connections

Associated Authors

Source Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopedia.com: Cyrano de Bergerac (Encyclopedia.com)
Source E. T. A. Hoffmann (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopedia.com: Edmond Rostand (Encyclopedia.com)
Eugène Sue, Authors
Source Eugène Sue (Wikipedia)
Source France Prešeren (Wikipedia)
Source François-René de Chateaubriand (Wikipedia)
George Sand, Authors
Source George Sand (Wikipedia)
Source Heinrich von Kleist (Wikipedia)
Jean Paul, Authors
Source Jean Paul (Wikipedia)
John Keats, Authors
Source John Keats (Wikipedia)
Source Joseph von Eichendorff (Wikipedia)
Lord Byron, Authors
Source Lord Byron (Wikipedia)
Mary Shelley, Authors

Her working years (1814-1851) and her place in the Byron-Shelley circle at Geneva in 1816 place her squarely within Romanticism's period, unlike Walpole's earlier, pre-Romantic Otranto (1764).

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Source Mikhail Lermontov (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Wikipedia (German): Washington Irving
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Associated With

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Gothic Fiction, Genres

Gothic fiction arose as a dark, supernatural current within Romanticism, sharing its fascination with the sublime and its suspicion of Enlightenment rationality.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Kubla Khan, Works
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Lyrical Ballads, Works

The 1798 joint publication is the movement's own stated candidate for its effective English start.

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Tanzimat Literature, Movements

Literary history relation between named movements

Influenced

Aestheticism, Movements

Literary history relation between named movements

Bengal Renaissance, Movements

Bengal Renaissance figures such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote under the influence of European Romanticism.

Chhayavaad, Movements
Nahda, Movements

Nahda writers absorbed European Enlightenment and Romantic literary currents alongside classical Arabic revival.

The PRB drew heavily on Romantic poetry, especially Keats, for its medievalist and sensory aesthetic.

Symbolism, Movements

Influenced By

In the Other Atlases

Same As

Also in Arts and Music Atlas: the same subject.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannicatier 1

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Romanticism (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph
Quote, Lead paragraph
Romanticists rejected the social conventions of the time
View the Source
2. The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
  • Period, From (Year): from 1789
  • Period, To (Year): to 1837
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • Associated Authors: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • Associated Authors: William Wordsworth
  • Associated With: Gothic Fiction
View the Source
George Sand (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: George Sand, Lead, standing
Quote, Associated Authors: George Sand, Lead, standing
one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era
View the Source
Lord Byron (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Lord Byron, Lead, second sentence
Quote, Associated Authors: Lord Byron, Lead, second sentence
He was one of the major figures of the Romantic movement
View the Source
Wikipedia (German): Washington Irving
Wikipedia (German)Associated Authors: Washington Irving, Lead and body text
Quote, Associated Authors: Washington Irving, Lead and body text
wandte er sich zunehmend Einflüssen der europäischen Romantik zu
View the Source
John Keats (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: John Keats, English Wikipedia, lead [in-genre]
Quote, Associated Authors: John Keats, English Wikipedia, lead [in-genre]
was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets
View the Source
E. T. A. Hoffmann (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: E. T. A. Hoffmann, English Wikipedia, lead [in-movement]
Quote, Associated Authors: E. T. A. Hoffmann, English Wikipedia, lead [in-movement]
he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement
View the Source
Jean Paul (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Jean Paul, Lead sentence [in-movement]
Quote, Associated Authors: Jean Paul, Lead sentence [in-movement]
was a German Romantic writer
View the Source
Joseph von Eichendorff (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Joseph von Eichendorff, Lead paragraph [in-movement]
Quote, Associated Authors: Joseph von Eichendorff, Lead paragraph [in-movement]
Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.
View the Source
France Prešeren (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: France Prešeren, Later life and legacy section
Quote, Associated Authors: France Prešeren, Later life and legacy section
His heartfelt lyrics and intensely emotional have made him the chief representative of the Romantic school in Slovenia.
View the Source
Eugène Sue (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Eugène Sue, Literary career [in-movement]
Quote, Associated Authors: Eugène Sue, Literary career [in-movement]
written at the height of the Romantic movement of 1830
View the Source
Heinrich von Kleist (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Heinrich von Kleist, Legacy section
Quote, Associated Authors: Heinrich von Kleist, Legacy section
the most important North German dramatist of the Romantic movement
View the Source
François-René de Chateaubriand (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: François-René de Chateaubriand, Career section
Quote, Associated Authors: François-René de Chateaubriand, Career section
spearheaded what later became the Romantic movement in France
View the Source
Mikhail Lermontov (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Mikhail Lermontov, Lead, Russian Romanticism
Quote, Associated Authors: Mikhail Lermontov, Lead, Russian Romanticism
greatest figure in Russian Romanticism
View the Source
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (Wikipedia)
Associated Authors: Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Writings, style
Quote, Associated Authors: Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Writings, style
Villiers' works, in the Romantic style
View the Source
Encyclopedia.com: Cyrano de Bergerac (Encyclopedia.com)
Encyclopedia.comAssociated Authors: Cyrano de Bergerac (play), Essay on Romanticism
Quote, Associated Authors: Cyrano de Bergerac (play), Essay on Romanticism
Cyrano de Bergerac falls very easily into the genre of Romanticism
View the Source
Encyclopedia.com: Edmond Rostand (Encyclopedia.com)
Encyclopedia.comAssociated Authors: Edmond Rostand, Critical overview
Quote, Associated Authors: Edmond Rostand, Critical overview
Significant for his revival of romantic verse drama
View the Source
Community

Organizations In This Tradition

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

Literature Atlas

How Stories Are Told
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme