What is Romanticism Some definitions Romanticism is disease

What is Romanticism? Some definitions: Romanticism is disease, Classicism is health. Goethe The return to nature. Rousseau Emotion rather than reason; the heart opposed to the head. George Sand

Origin of the term: • Early Middle Ages - “Romance” denoted vernacular (vs. Latin) • “romanz” – book composed in vernacular

Romanticism’s Timeline? • Origins in early/middle 18 th century • Blossomed in early 19 th century • Greatest production of new works: 1798 -1832 Delacroix – Liberty Leading the People (1830)

German Romanticism Germany = Europe’s “poor relation” at end of 18 th century Voltaire: Germany is nothing more than a word. Sparse literary tradition Fertile ground for a new movement

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 -1832) The Sorrows of Young Werther - 1774 Faust I – 1808 Faust II - 1832

Four Aspects of Romanticism in Faust 1) The “fertility of chaos” – Longing for order yet the world is chaotic – Examples? 2) Romantic despair/melancholy - Faust’s suicidal despair in study - cave scene

Four Aspects of Romanticism in Faust (cont’d) 3) The divine found in nature - cave scene 4) Gretchen – Romantic heroine - domestic role model - yet, kindermorderin

Faust and German Nationalism • 1860 s Germany – Faust linked to ideals of German unification… • …later, to fervent nationalism • “Goethe’s Faust became the symbol of the determined man of action whom the Empire needed to fulfill its mission. ” – Francoise Forster-Hahn