Title: The Defining Ideas of Romanticism | Pen and the Pad
Headings: The Defining Ideas of Romanticism
The Defining Ideas of Romanticism
Imagination
Nature
View of Self
Rejection of Modern LIfe

Content: The Defining Ideas of Romanticism | Pen and the Pad
The Defining Ideas of Romanticism
Martha Mendenhall Updated November 21, 2016
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The Romantic period of history, lasting from the late-18th to mid-19th century, affected the perceptions of Europeans and Americans in the areas of music, literature, art and philosophy. Romantic ideas emphasized a strong perception of self, reliance upon one's imaginative faculties and the investment of Nature with symbolic and quasi-religious significance. The Romantic movement also opposed the Industrial Revolution's mechanistic influence on society. Imagination
The Romantics believed that man's highest, most spiritual attribute was his imagination. For the Romantics, it is through the imagination that man can access not only his most creative thoughts, but also his connection to the divine. Poetry and other literature of the time encouraged the reader to use the words as a way to access his own imaginative faculties, thereby connecting with his own personal sense of the divine. Artists and musicians of the Romantic period also used the visual and aural aspects of their works as an inducement to the viewer or listener to access his personal imaginative powers. Nature
For the romantic writers, nature was imbued with the divine. Everyday natural elements such as flowers, stones, sunlight and the weather were described as though they carried a bit of God within them. In keeping with the move away from rational thinking towards reliance upon the imagination, Romanticism encouraged a view of nature that encouraged artists of the time to use their own subjective perception when rendering the sights and sounds they found in the natural world.