From the Augustan to the Romantic Age

Notes

1714 (George I, beginning of the dynasty of Hanover) – 1760 (death of George II)

• The Augustan Age

• The Enlightenment

• The Neoclassical Age

Augustan Age• Emperor Augustus 27 b.C. – 14 a.D.• some artists of the time used the expression

themselves (indicating they had Horace, Virgil and Ovid as models)

• internal political stability• expanding colonial empire• technological progress in industry and agriculturegrowth of Britain as a leading political and

commercial country

Enlightenment• remarkable progress in natural science• application of the scientific method to other

areas of life• Royal Society (founded in 1622): development

of art and science, meeting point for scientists• Isaac Newton (1642-1727): universe explained

in logical terms• rational approach even to religious matters

(Deism)

Neoclassicism

• attempt at reproducing the formal perfection of classical writers

• strict observation of rules in metre and rhyme• creation of a poetic diction → an artificial,

stereotyped language, removed from everyday language, only appropriate for poetry

• desire for order, balance, rationality

• A time of political stability, traditionalism, elegance, wit, optimism, faith in progress

• Idea of the imitation of nature ↓ woods, rivers, mountains, human naturethe universe; the divine rules regulating it,

shown in the creation

• focus on the power of REASON / COMMON SENSE

• growing emphasis on the culture of the heart, on SENSIBILITY, on individual judgement

• expansion of the MIDDLE CLASS• coffee houses

• JOURNALISM

• the NOVELDefoeSwiftFieldingRichardsonSterne

• however, a trend of subjective, meditative trends never disappeared

• became evident especially in the final part of the century, the so-called Early Romantic Age or Pre-Romantic Age

• love of nature, interest in folklore, a tendency to mystery and melancholy, the Gothic trend

THE ROMANTIC AGE-from 1760 (beginning of George III’s reign) to

1832 (First Reform Act) or 1837 (Victoria’s accession to the throne)

1798/1800 Lyrical Ballads (the ‘Preface’)-meaning and use of the term «romantic»-an age of REVOLUTIONAmerican FrenchIndustrial

• a European phenomenon, with three main branches: German, French, English

• in Italy it officially started in 1816; strong nationalistic elements, best expressed in poetry and the novel

• Sturm und Drang, 1770s; philosophical character

• French Romanticism, esp represented by drama and literary criticism; influence of Rousseau

• a complex, various cultural movement, with some key ideas

stress on the imagination and individual experience

conception of the artist as an original creator free from strict adherence to models and rules

notion of nature as a living being, closely connected to the divine

idea of the child as unspoiled by society and civilization