Romantic Literature Analysis

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As previously mentioned in the Introduction, the main sources for this Paper, but especially for this segment are Christoph Reinfandt’s Englische Romantik, Romantische Kommunikation as well as Romantic Gothic, An Edinburgh Companion edited by Angela Wright and Dale Townshend. Before giving further details on this term and era, it needs to be emphasized that the naming of such literary currents is a categorization that most often happens retrospectively. Furthermore, the respective current can occur in different countries at a different time. “Wohl kaum ein Adjektiv ist zwischen alltagssprachlichen und kulturgeschichtlich-fachwissenschaftlichen Verwendungen so vielschichtig mit Bedeutungen…show more content…
Romanticism prefers Nature, rather wildness and intuition over classical harmony and rationalism. As for emotions - such as anger, horror, terror, awe, passion, etc. – they are highly preferred. Furthermore, emphasis is being laid on the unconscious and irrational part of human beings. Dreams are a common example for the unconscious. The topics and aspects of this literary movement comprise primacy of imagination, passion, sensibility, criticism of the past, individualism and the supernatural. What is to be found in Frankenstein, among other, is an interest in difficult, uncomfortable emotions, this is especially to be found in Frankenstein’s angst of encountering his creation, literally the mixture of awe and horror. It is to be noted that at that time people really thought that they eventually would be able to reanimate the dead. Going along with that thought, the book can be read as a stern critique to the likes of thoughts in the category of reanimating the…show more content…
Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) where he deals with the themes of innocence and experience, among other big Romantic themes: Nature, the body, the sublime. The previously mentioned William Wordsworth, who presumably kick started the movement in England with his Lyrical Ballads (1798). He made use of emotion, but does not neglect Nature. Samuel T. Coleridge with e.g. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). In Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812 – 1818), George Gordon Byron -commonly known as Lord Byron- tells, in a travel log kind of way (travel literature), the story of a young man who travels through foreign lands. I opted for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage as an example because the protagonist in it, is the perfect example for the “Byronic hero”. This poem is semi-autobiographical, which is why the protagonist is found to be smart, handsome and moody, with little to no respect towards figures of authority. Another big author of the Romantic period is John Keats. He is the author of poems like ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which he makes use of all the big Romantic themes like Nature, the sublime, the ancient past, and of course
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