Romanticism as a literary trend. Romanticism in the literature of the 19th century

This current is one of the main artistic phenomena in the culture of the XIX century in Russia, Europe and America. Romanticism as a literary trend originated in the late XVIII century, but reached its peak in the 1830s. Since the beginning of the 1850s, the period begins to decline, but its threads stretch through the entire 19th century, giving a basis for such areas as symbolism, decadence and neo-romanticism.

The emergence of romanticism

The homeland of the direction is Europe, in particular England and France, where the name of this artistic direction - "romantisme" came from. This is explained by the fact that the romanticism of the 19th century arose as a consequence of the Great French Revolution.

The revolution destroyed the whole previous hierarchy, mixed society and social strata. The man began to feel lonely and began to seek consolation in gambling and other entertainments. Against this background, the idea arose that all life is a game in which there are winners and losers. The main hero of each romantic work becomes a man playing with fate, with fate.

What is Romanticism

Romanticism is all that exists only in books: incomprehensible, incredible and fantastic phenomena, at the same time involving the assertion of a person through her spiritual and creative life. Mainly, the events unfold against the background of pronounced passions, all the characters have clearly manifested characters, often are endowed with rebellious spirit.

Writers of the Romantic era emphasize the fact that the main value in life is the person's personality. Each person is a separate world full of amazing beauty. It is from there that all inspiration and exalted feelings are drawn, as well as a tendency to idealization.

According to the writers-novelists, the ideal is an ephemeral concept, but nevertheless has the right to exist. The ideal is beyond the ordinary, so the protagonist and his ideas are directly opposed to everyday relations and material things.

Distinctive features

The features of romanticism as a literary trend consist in basic ideas and conflicts.

The main idea of almost every work is the constant movement of the hero in the physical space. This fact, as it were, reflects the confusion of the soul, its continuously current reflections and, at the same time, changes in the world around it.

Like many artistic trends, Romanticism has its own conflicts. Here the whole concept is based on the complex relationship between the protagonist and the world around him. He is very self-centered and at the same time rebels against the low-lying, vulgar, material objects of reality, which somehow manifests itself in the actions, thoughts and ideas of the character. The most pronounced in this regard are the following literary examples of romanticism: Childe Harold is the main hero of the "Childe Harold Pilgrimage" Byron and Pechorin - from "The Hero of Our Time" Lermontov.

If we generalize all of the above, then it turns out that the basis of any such work is the gap between reality and the idealized world, which has very sharp edges.

Romanticism in European literature

European romanticism of the 19th century is remarkable in that, in most of its works, it has a fantastic basis. These are numerous fairy tales, novels and novels.

The main countries in which Romanticism as a literary trend manifested itself most expressively are France, England and Germany.

This artistic phenomenon has several stages:

1. 1801-1815 gg. The beginning of the formation of romantic aesthetics.
2. 1815-1830 gg. Formation and flow of flow, the definition of the basic postulates of this direction.
3. 1830-1848 gg. Romanticism takes on more social forms.

Each of the above countries has made its own, special contribution to the development of this cultural phenomenon. In France, romantic literary works were more political in color, writers were hostile to the new bourgeoisie. This society, according to French figures, ruined the integrity of the individual, its beauty and freedom of the spirit.

In English legends, romanticism existed for a long time, but until the end of the 18th century it did not stand out as a separate literary trend. English works, unlike French ones, are filled with Gothic, religion, national folklore, culture of peasant and working societies (including spiritual ones). In addition, English prose and lyrics are filled with travels to distant lands and studies of foreign lands.

In Germany, romanticism as a literary trend was formed under the influence of idealistic philosophy. The basis was the individuality and freedom of man, oppressed by feudalism, as well as the perception of the universe as a single living system. Almost every German work is permeated with reflections on the existence of man and the life of his spirit.

Europe: examples of works

The most notable European works in the spirit of romanticism are the following literary works:

- the treatise "The Genius of Christianity", the novels "Atala" and "Renee" Chateaubriand;

- novels "Dolphin", "Corinne, or Italy" Germaine de Stael;

- the novel "Adolf" of Benjamin Konstant;

- the novel "Confession of the Son of the Century" by Musset;

- The novel "Saint-Mar" Vigny;

- the manifesto "Foreword" to the work "Cromwell", the novel "Notre Dame de Paris" by Hugo;

- drama "Henry III and his court", a series of novels about musketeers, "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Queen Margot" by Dumas;

- novels "Indiana", "Wandering Apprentice", "Horace", "Consuelo" George Sand;

- Manifesto "Racine and Shakespeare" by Stendhal;

- poems "The Old Sailor" and "Christabel" by Coleridge;

- "Oriental poems" and "Manfred" by Byron;

- collected works of Balzac;

- The novel "Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott;

- the fairy tale "Hyacinth and Rose", novel "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" by Novalis;

- collections of short stories, fairy tales and novels by Hoffmann.

Romanticism in Russian Literature

Russian Romanticism of the 19th century was born under the direct influence of Western European literature. However, despite this, it had its own characteristics, which were traced back in previous periods.

This artistic phenomenon in Russia fully reflected the hostility of the foremost revolutionaries to the ruling bourgeoisie, in particular, to its way of life - unbridled, immoral and cruel. Russian romanticism of the 19th century was a direct result of rebellious moods and anticipation of turning points in the history of the country.

In the literature of that time, two areas are distinguished: psychological and civil. The first was based on the description and analysis of feelings and experiences, the second - on the propaganda of the struggle with modern society. The common and main idea of all novelists was that the poet or writer should behave according to the ideals that he described in his works.

Russia: examples of works

The most striking examples of romanticism in the nineteenth-century Russian literature are:

- novels "Ondine", "The Prisoner of Shillon", ballads "The Forest Tsar", "Fisherman", "Lenora" Zhukovsky;

- compositions "Eugene Onegin", "The Queen of Spades" by Pushkin;

- "The Night Before Christmas" by Gogol;

- "Hero of Our Time" Lermontov.

Romanticism in American Literature

In America, the direction received a slightly later development: the initial stage of it is dated 1820-1830 years, the subsequent - 1840-1860 years of the XIX century. Both stages were exceptionally influenced by civil unrest both in France (which was the impetus for the creation of the United States), so directly in America itself (the war for independence from England and the war between the North and the South).

Artistic trends in American romanticism are represented by two types: abolitionist, who advocated liberation from slavery, and eastern, idealized plantation.

American literature of this period is based on the rethinking of knowledge and genres captured from Europe and mixed with a peculiar way of life and pace of life on a still new and little-known continent. American works are richly flavored with national intonations, a sense of independence and a struggle for freedom.

American romanticism. Examples of works

- cycle "Alhambra", stories "Groom-ghost", "Rip Van Winkle" and "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving;

- The novel "The Last of the Mohicans" by Fenimore Cooper;

- the poem "The Crow", the stories "Ligeia", "The Golden Beetle", "The Fall of the House of Asherov" and other E. Alan Poe;

- novels "Scarlet Letter" and "House of the Seven Gables" by Gorton;

- The novels of Taipi and Moby Dick by Melville;

- The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe;

- poetically translated legends of "Evangelina", "Song of Hiawatha", "Matchmaking Miles Standish" Longfellow;

- a collection of "Leaves of Grass" by Whitman;

- the essay "A Woman in the Nineteenth Century" by Margaret Fuller.

Romanticism as a literary trend had a strong enough influence on musical, theatrical art and painting - it is enough to recall the numerous productions and pictures of those times. This happened mainly because of such qualities of direction as high aesthetics and emotionality, heroism and pathos, chivalry, idealization and humanism. Despite the fact that the age of romanticism was short-lived, it did not affect the popularity of books written in the XIX century, in the following decades - works of literary art of that period are loved and revered by the public to this day.