- What is literary romanticism?
- Characteristics of literary romanticism
- Origin of literary romanticism
- Authors and works of literary romanticism
We explain what literary romanticism is, its origin, time in which it arose and characteristics. In addition, its main authors and works.
What is literary romanticism?
In history of the literature, is known as Romanticism, or as the literature of Romanticism, one of the literary movements most important of the Europe modern, emerged in Germany around 1770 and then popularized in the rest of the continent and in its American colonies until the middle of the 19th century.
Obviously this is the literary variant of a much larger aesthetic and philosophical movement, the Romanticism, which emerged in the 18th century as a revolutionary reaction against the prevailing tendencies of the Illustration and the Neoclassicism, as well as its values of rationality, universality and realism.
As in the other arts, Romanticism in literature opted for the exaltation of feelings, national and popular stories, the originality of artistic genius and a tragic awareness of life.
It is important to make the caveat that "romantic" in this sense does not necessarily have to do with "loving", as it is understood today. This last sense was imposed, in fact, after the decline of the Romantic movement at the end of the 19th century.
Characteristics of literary romanticism
Literary romanticism was characterized by the following:
- He valued the inspiration and subjectivities of the artist as the origin of literary production, for which he offered his writers wide quotas of Liberty that contrasted with the rationalist and more restrictive literature of the Enlightenment.
- It addressed issues of the national and popular imagination, such as legends and folklore, as well as myths medieval and Greco-Latin, often preferring a pre-industrial imaginary, often bucolic or country-style.
- In the field of poetry, lyricism and sentimental motives prevailed (which does not mean that the theme was always love), thus appearing the “lyrical self”.
- The nationalism appears as a strong feeling in romantic literary works: the love for the tradition popular, for the land and the people. As for the religious, a Christian vision is imposed.
- The topic of the dead loved one was frequent in most poets and writers.
Origin of literary romanticism
Literary romanticism had its beginnings in pre-romantic German literature, one of the greatest exponents of which was Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).
On the other hand, its first manifestations are in the movement Sturm und Drang (“Storm and impetus”) in the middle of the 18th century, in which various artists and writers gave themselves full freedom of expression to explore their inspirations and subjectivities, taking sentiment and not rationality as a source of inspiration.
From Germany, romanticism spread to the other European nations, producing very important literary references in England, France and Spain, and also in tsarist Russia of the time. Later it continued in America and added important names in the United States and Latin America, especially Colombia, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela.
Authors and works of literary romanticism
Victor Hugo was one of the greatest authors of Romanticism and French literature.Some of the names most commonly associated with literary romanticism, and his most outstanding works are the following:
- Novalis (1772-1801). Pseudonym of Georg Phillip Friedrich von Hardenberg, was a German writer and philosopher of early romanticism, famous for his Hymns to the night and his novel Henry of Ofterdingen. His work is fundamentally poetic and is inserted in the so-called "magical idealism".
- Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). German poet, playwright, philosopher and historian, considered together with the pre-Romantic Goethe as the most important playwright in Germany. He is considered one of the most relevant voices in the bourgeoisie of the time, in its transit of absolutism to post-revolutionary life, and much of his work inspired other German and foreign creators and musicians. Among all of it the dramas stand out The Maid of Orleans, William Tell Y Don Carlos, as well as a diverse work essayistic.
- Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843). German novelist and lyric poet, translator and scholar of the philosophy, subscribed not only to Romanticism, but also to the movement of Idealism. His most famous works are Hyperion or the hermit of Greece, The death of Empedocles Y The archipelago.
- Georg Büchner (1813-1837). Playwright and prose writer of German nationality, who, had he not died so young, perhaps would have had the fame and appreciation of Schiller and Goethe. His theatrical works are represented all over the world, the most famous being Danton's death Y Woyzeck.
- John Keats (1795-1821). British romantic poet, whose work was despised in life and highly valued in later times. Keats felt all his life that his work was in the shadow of the poets of the past, and only when he was near death was he able to produce his best works, including La Belle Dame sans merci, Ode to Psyche, Lamia and other poems, Ode to a nightingale Y Ode to a Greek urn.
- Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). One of the greatest German essayists and poets of the 19th century, considered the last poet of romanticism and who put an end to it. He was a militant socialist utopian, persecuted by the authorities and exiled towards the end of his life. Among his best known works are Travel paintings, Ballads, The romantic school Y Florentine nights.
- Victor Hugo (1802-1885). Poet, playwright and French romantic novelist, he is considered one of the great names in French literature, as well as a great politician and intellectual of his time. He is the author of such well-known and admired works as The Miserables, Our Lady of paris, The man who laughs, and many poems and plays.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Poet, critic and philosopher of English origin, he was together with William Wordsworth one of the founders of romanticism in Great Britain. He was part of the so-called Lakist poets of the early nineteenth century and his most famous works are Ballad of the Old Sailor, Kubla khan Y Christabel.
- William Wordsworth (1770-1850). One of the most important English poets of Romanticism, together with Coleridge, was the author of one of the poetic works that the movement imposed on the entire country: Lyrical ballads of 1798. His poetry was very innovative and he sought a language simple, immediate and everyday to narrate the lives of ordinary people. Other of his famous works were The night meditations and the Ode written in a peasant cemetery.
- Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837). Poet, philosopher, philologist and translator of Italian origin, he is the greatest representative of Romanticism in that country. His work, characterized by a deep pessimism, clings to the cult of heroes and the glorious past, in poems such as Chants, To the Italians or their Moral booklets.
- Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). American writer, poet and critic, well known for his work of crime and mystery stories, which made him one of the greatest cultists of the short story in the world. He was a renovator of the gothic novel, and despite his early demise, many of his works are legendary, such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The crimes of the Rue Morgue, The well and the pendulum, The stolen letter or The premature burial, among many others.
- Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870). Spanish poet and narrator of late romanticism, also associated with post-romanticism, whose fame came to him after his death. His most famous work, Rhymes and legends, is a popular classic of Hispanic literature.
- José María Heredia (1803-1839). Considered the first romantic poet in America and one of the greatest in the Spanish language, this Cuban author also served as judge, lawyer, translator, novelist, playwright, soldier and politician. His extensive poetic work is very famous and well-known, as well as his dramas Atreus, Sila or The last romans.
- Jorge Isaacs (1837-1895). Colombian novelist and poet who lived during the consolidation of the Republic of Colombia, he is the author of a brief but fundamental work in the continent, composed of a book of poems in 1864 and his novel Mary from 1867.