ROMANTICISM
Created by: Chrisani Burt ; Janiya Phillips; and Cévion
Davidson
Quote
I became insane, with
long intervals of
horrible sanity. ~Edgar
Allan Poe
Romanticism Dates
to
centuries
the approximate period
was from 1770 to 1865.
th
18
th
19
What is Romanticism
 Romanticism was named after a medieval romance, a tale or
ballad of chivalric adventure and individual heroism.
 Romanticism, stands for a literary renaissance. Three
generations of Romanticists dominated the intellectual scene
in Western Europe and in North America, bringing a different
approach to writing in terms of style and topic. It was a
rebellion against the formalism of the Enlightenment or,
revised its views.
 Romanticists' spirit and interests are very broad and include
both classical and modern ideas. They value to the same
extent experience and tradition, religion and science,
emotions and reason, order and freedom, the individual and
group, national and ancient as well as the rational and
Main Characteristics
•Preoccupation with social and
political affairs
•Realistic topics based on folk
tales and ballads
•Plain feelings and true
emotions
•Emphasis on individual
freedom
•Nature in a typically idealized
form embracing tradition
•Introducing cultural
•Exploring national history
•Bringing back medieval
national roots including
history of language,
institutions, thought and
architecture
•Rejection of artificialities
•Imagination - mixture of
factual details and
adventurous doings
•Simple in style, popular in
appeal
•Creative, innovative,
exploratory in approach
Romanticism highlighted importance
 The individual emotions, feelings and expressions of artists.
 It rejected rigid forms and structures. Instead it placed great stress on
the individual, unique experience of an artist / writer.
 Romanticism gave great value to nature, and an artists experience
within nature. This was in stark contrast to the rapid industrialisation
of society in the Nineteenth Century.
 Romanticism was considered idealistic – a belief in greater ideals than
materialism and rationalism and the potential beauty of nature and
mystical experience.
 Romanticism was influenced by the ideals of the French and American
revolution, which sought to free man from a rigid autocratic society.
Over time, it also became more associated with burgeoning
nationalistic movements, e.g. movement for Italian independence.
Significant Authors (poets)
William Blake
Lord Byron
Robert Burns
Percy
Bysshe
Shelley
Samuel
Taylor
Coleridge
John
Keats
Significant Authors (Writers from American)
Edgar
Allan
Poe
Emily
Dickinson
John
M.W.
Turner
Walt
Whitman
Francisco
José de
Goya
John
Constable
Eugène
Delacroix
Significant Authors
Johann
Wolfgang
von Goethe
Honore de
Balzac
Sir Walter
Scott
Alexandre
Dumas
Mary
Shelley
Victor
Hugo
Gustave
Flaubert
List of significant writings
Novel: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelly
Year: 1818
Novel: Waverley
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Year: 1814
Novel: The Bride of
Lammermoor
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Year: 1819
List of significant writings (continued)
Novel: Mathilda
Author: Mary Shelley
Year: 1959
Worked On : August 1819 February 1820
Short Story: Der Sandman
Author: E. T. A. Hoffmann
Year written: 1816
Series: Tales of A
Grandfather
Author: Walter Scott
Year: 1827
Edgar Allan Poe Significant Writings
Poems:
The bells
The Raven
Annabel Lee
The City in the
Sea
A dream within a
dream
The one in
Paradise
Stories
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Masque of the
Red Death
The Cask of
Amontillado
Eleonora
The Fall of the
House of Usher
The Murders in the
Rue Morgue
Timeline
1772 - Lord
Mansfield
delivers
judgement in the
case of James
Somersett, a
runaway slave
1770 - Boston
Massacre
1772 Emmanuel
Swedenborg
dies
1776 - American
Declaration of
Independence
1773 - Boston
Tea Party
1770s
1787 - The
Society for
the Purpose
of Effecting
the
Abolition of
the Slave
Trade
established
in London
1783 - Pitt
becomes
Prime
Minister at
the age of
24 (until
1801
1780 Gordon
Riots in
London
1781 Cornwallis
surrenders
to
Washington
at Yorktown
1787 Warren
Hastings
impeached
by Burke in
House of
Commons
1788 George III
suffers
mental
collapse
1787 American
Constitution
drafted and
signed
1780s
1789 - Price
addresses
the London
Revolution
Society
1789 Storming of
the Bastille
1790s
1790 - The
Ogé rebellion
in San
Domingo
1790 President
Washington
delivers the
first ‘State of
the Union’
address
1792 September
Massacres of
royalists and
other
prisoners in
Paris
1791 - Slave
Riots in San
Domingo
1791 - AntiDissenter
riots in
Birmingham
1791 United
Irishmen
founded by
Wolfe Tone
in Belfast to
fight for Irish
nationalism
1793 - Marat
murdered in
his bath by
Charlotte
Corday1793 Marie
Antoinette
Executed
1793 - Louis
XVI executed
1792 Robespierre
elected to
the National
Assembly
1793 Committee of
Public Safety
formed, led
by Danton,
Robespierre,
Saint-Just
and Couthon
1794 Treason trials
begin in
London with
the trial of
Thomas
Hardy
1794 Robespierre
executed; end
of the Terror
1798 - Battle
of the Nile
1796 Napoleon
commands
Italian
campaign,
defeating
Austrians
1798 Uprising of
the United
Irishmen,
1801 Toussaint
L’Ouverture
takes
command
of Haiti,
liberates
black slaves
1805 Battle of
Trafalgar,
Nelson
mortally
wounded
1803 Toussaint
L’Ouverture
dies in
prison
1801 Battle of
Copenhagen
1802 Peace of
Amiens,
bringing a
temporary
respite to
the war
between
France and
Britain (until
May 1803)
1806 - Pitt
dies; Baron
Grenville
becomes
head of the
Coalition of
the Ministry
of All the
Talents
(until 26
March
1807)
1805 Emmet
leads an
uprising in
Ireland
which fails
due to lack
of French
support
1805 Napoleon
defeats
Russian and
Austrian
armies at
Austerlitz
1800s
1809 Madison
inaugurated
as fourth
US
President
1807 Peninsular
War begins
1807 Abolition
Act receives
royal
assent,
abolishing
the slave
trade
1809 Lincoln
born,
Kentucky
1811 - Prince
of Wales
declared
Regent, his
father having
been
recognized as
insane
1813 - Leigh
Hunt
sentenced to
two years’
imprisonment
for libelling
the Prince
Regent
1812 America
declares war
on Britain
1812 Assassination
of the Prime
Minister,
Spencer
Perceval,
precipitating
Liverpool’s
administration
1812 Napoleon
enters
Moscow
1814 Napoleon
defeated at
Toulouse;
exiled to Elba
1814 - Allies
take Paris
(news reaches
London 5
April)
1817 William Hone
(radical
publisher)
tried for
publishing
1817 Princess
Charlotte dies
in childbirth
1816 - Spa
Fields riots in
London
1815 Napoleon
defeated at
Waterloo;
exiled to
Saint Helena
in August
1817 Monroe
becomes fifth
President of
US
1810s
1819 Peterloo
Massacre
takes place,
St Peter’s
Fields,
Manchester
1819 University of
Virginia
founded by
Jefferson
1819 Bolivar
becomes
President and
military
dictator of
Colombia
1819 - Trial
of Richard
Carlile,
radical
publisher
1820 - Military
insurrection at
Cadiz
precipitates
revolution in
Spain, leading
to the
restoration of
the 1812
constitution in
March
1820 - Start
of the trial of
Queen
Caroline
1820 - Cato
Street
Conspiracy
foiled
1828 - Repeal
of Test and
Corporation
Acts that kept
non-Anglicans
from holding
office
1825 - John
Quincy Adams
elected sixth
US President
1823 - Monroe
Doctrine
enunciated in
America
1828 Wellington
becomes Prime
Minister
1820s
1829 Metropolitan
Police Act puts
‘Peelers’ on
the streets of
London
1829 Catholic Relief
Act
1833 Emancipation
Act receives its
final reading,
abolishing
slavery in British
colonies
1831 - Lord
John Russell
introduces
Reform Bill
1832 - Reform
Bill receives
royal assent
1836 - Siege of
the Alamo; Davy
Crocket killed
1834 - Poor Law
Reform Act
1830s
1838 - Charter
presented to
Parliament by
National
Convention of
Chartists
1848 - Second
Republic
proclaimed in
France
1838 - Outbreak
of Opium War
with China
1848 - Gold
discovered in
California;
beginning of the
gold rush
1840s
1848 - LouisNapoléon
Bonaparte
elected President
of France
1850 - California admitted to
the Union
1850s
Works Cited
 Edgar Allan Poe Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 23 Aug.
2015.
 "Famous People of the Romantic Period •." Biography Online. 17
Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Aug. 2015.
 "Introduction to Romanticism." Introduction to Romanticism.
Web. 23 Aug. 2015.
 "Romanticism, An Anthology, 4th Edition - Edited by Duncan Wu."
Romanticism, An Anthology, 4th Edition. Web. 7 Sept. 2015.
 "Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe." Stories by Edgar Allan Poe,
The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and More. Web. 7 Sept.
2015.