The Romantic Movement
A Social and Cultural History
- Editore:
Blackwell Publishers
- Collana:
- Making of Europe
- EAN:
9780631194712
- ISBN:
0631194711
- Pagine:
- 176
- Formato:
- Paperback
- Lingua:
- Inglese
Descrizione The Romantic Movement
The Romantic Movement in Europe was both a revolt and a revival, a philosophy of life as well as of art. In the earliest expressions of romantic theory by Rousseau and Diderot, it is seen as a revolt against rationalism. In Great Britain and Italy it appears as a revolt against classicism, in Spain as a revival of the tradition of the Moorish courts, and in Germany, where it excited the greatest enthusiasm, as both a revolt against rationalism and a revival of the Gothic and Germanic. Despite the differences of aim and emphasis across Europe, Professor Cranston argues that romaticism was a European phenomenon, as universal as the Renaissance. He isolates its common features - liberty, introspection, and the importance of love; truth in the expression of feeling as much as of thought; nature seen as an object of devotion rather than scientific study; a tolerance of the grotesque coupled with an interest in the exotic, the primitive and the medieval; a concern for the value of intuition over ratiocination; and a preference for audacity over prudence.
