From the Augustan to the Romantic Age Notes

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 agriculture growth 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 nature the 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 NOVEL Defoe Swift Fielding Richardson Sterne

• 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 REVOLUTION ü American ü French ü Industrial

• 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, 1770 s; philosophical character • French Romanticism, esp represented by drama and literary criticism; influence of Rousseau

• a complex, various cultural movement, with some key ideas ü stress on the imagination and individual experience ü conception of the artist as an original creator free from strict adherence to models and rules ü notion of nature as a living being, closely connected to the divine ü idea of the child as unspoiled by society and civilization