Romanticism

•What is it?•How did it begin?•What does it say?•What are some examples?

Romanticism is the name given to the school of thought that values feeling and intuition over reason.

What is it?

Romanticism was a reaction to rationalism.

How did it begin?

By the mid-1700s rationalism rivaled religion as the dominant intellectual force in the West.

Rationalism emphasized objective facts, science, and industry.

The Romantics feared that rationalism was making the world into a grim, artificial place.

The Romantics valued feeling and intuition over reason.

Classical Painting Romantic Painting

What does it say?

The Romantics placed faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination.

The Romantics shunned civilization in favor of unspoiled nature.

The Romantics found beauty and truth in exotic locales, the super-natural realm, and the inner world of the imagination.

The Romantics found inspiration in myth, legend and folklore.

James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (1826) features a hero who is young, intuitive and close to nature.

Examples of Romanticism

Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820) includes a supernatural Headless Horseman.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) emphasizes how artificial and restrictive society is.

The End

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

• Irving was born in New York City, became a lawyer and worked in his family’s business.

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

• While in England on business, he was advised by Sir Walter Scott to study the Romantics and find inspiration in folklore and legends.

• Irving’s stories combine comedy, satire and the supernatural:

“Rip Van Winkle”“The Legend of Sleepy

Hollow” “The Devil and Tom

Walker”