Romanticism+lecture+notes

**Noble Savage**- (Primitivism) Rousseau’s archetype + product of exploration. ·  Man’s inherent goodness vs. danger of institutional restraint ·  Emotional capacity- which opened doors to women, children & “primitives” ·  Nature as source of freedom & goodness & nobility. ·  Strength & sexual prowess also considered superior Authentic emotional reporting valued- often falling into narcissism. Rousseau’s Emile (1762) Confessions (1781-88) French Revolution- Liberty Egalite Fraternite! English manufacturing creates middle class w/o old expectations/boundaries Urban, educated elites (and newly rising middle class) Deism & Aestheticism (sublime & picturesque) reverse views of wild nature NASH! p. 57- ·  Economic, social and physical distance from wilderness allows “appreciation” to develop. (vs. pioneer aversion). ·  Travel to wilderness as a mark of wealth & class ·  Wilderness becomes an unknown, a novelty for many people ·  “Sublime” transformed pioneer’s terror/aversion into aesthetic/religious appreciation.
 * Romanticism Lecture- ** 10/5/08
 * Romanticism- **

·  individualism grows out of your intuition ·  social conformity restricts these values (no need for religion) ·  Based on Kant’s “intuitions of the mind” (experience) ·  disregard authority & rely on personal, individual experience ·  Emerson’s “Oversoul” connecting all beings perceivable through intuition, not reason. (nature often serves as mystical vehicle for achieving this knowledge) ·  Emerson’s guide //Self Reliance// “Trust Thyself” ·  Dickens- “I was given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would certainly be Transcendental” **Byronic/Romantic Hero**- ·  Hester Prynne, Heathcliff, Sorrows of Young Werther, Byron’s works ·  Disenchanted, damaged by society and/or guilt (or by unspecified sexual crimes) ·  Proud & self conscious ·  Seeks escape & renewal in solitude and wild nature ·  Appears morally & physically more powerful than civilized peers ·  Mystery, supernational turns to gothic sensibility. ·  “Beautiful, but damned.” Darwin’s Origin of Species 1859 & Marx’s Das Kapital 1864 and American Civil War signal the end of Romantic aspirations for utopian ideals.
 * Transcendentalism- **