Romanticism Research Articles

A pop literature theory of mind of the romantic century’s dark triad seducers.

A pop literature theory of mind of the romantic century’s dark triad seducers.

Огюст Бризё как тип романтического певца локальной культуры

The aim of the research is to identify the main features of a creative type embodied in the figure of A. Brizeux. Based on the analysis of the poems “Marie” (1831), “The Bretons” (“Les Bretons”, 1846) and “The Breton Elegy” (“L’Élégie de la Bretagne”, 1857), the paper describes the main features of the artistic world created by the writer, as well as the most significant features of the author’s poetics. The paper is original in that it provides a typological examination of the Breton poet’s creative work, focusing on the analysis of the works on the Breton theme, which was most important to A. Brizeux. This approach significantly differs from a complete description of the writer’s creative heritage (with all the incidental details distracting from the main material) and is closer to a thesaurus-based thematic and content-based limitation in the selection of research material. Such a method brings typical features to the foreground and emphasizes them: Brizeux is not just the “bard of Brittany” (the most widespread and well-established view of the poet), but the “bard of Brittany” who lived in an era dominated by Romantic tastes in literature and, therefore, saw his homeland in a way that poets of other eras could not. As a result of the research, it has been found that A. Brizeux represents, firstly, a type of writer not uncommon for the Romantic era, who actualized interest in local culture (Breton culture) and created a romantically idealized image of the homeland, similar to how Virgil created the most memorable myth of “blessed Arcadia” in the “Bucolics”, and, secondly, a type of writer who simultaneously participated in processes characteristic of different Romantic literary periods: the rethinking of poetic norms and the practical transformation of genres.

Gustav Mahler: tragic life, mysterious illness, early death : Could intensive care medicine have saved him today?

Gustav Mahler was a composer of the late Romantic period, one of the most famous conductors of his time and, as opera director, one of the most important reformers of musical theatre. Mahler's life, illnesses, death and dying are little or not at all known to many. Which illnesses determined Mahler's life? Could his early death have been avoided? From today's point of view, could modern intensive care medicine have helped him? A detailed analysis of Mahler's diseases was performed using scientific databases (medline, pubmed). All published articles were examined in detail. Gustav Mahler was born in 1860 in Kalischt (Bohemia) and learned to play the accordion and piano at an early age. He studied music at the Vienna Conservatory from 1875 and completed his composition studies in 1878. Kapellmeister positions followed in several cities, from 1887 at the Vienna Court Opera and from 1908 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Mahler suffered from many illnesses, especially tonsillitis and haemorrhoids. In 1907 he was diagnosed with a mitral valve defect, in 1911 he developed bacterial endocarditis caused by streptococci, as a result of which Mahler died in Vienna in 1911. His life was marked by personal and health tragedies. Mahler was an outstanding personality who left behind an extensive oeuvre. Among the compositional highlights are his 10 symphonies and the song compositions. Recurrent streptococcal infections led to mitral valve disease and endocarditis, the consequences of which caused Mahler's untimely death. Today's modern cardiology and intensive care medicine could have prolonged his life, but unfortunately this was not possible at the time when he was diagnosed with endocarditis.

Francophone and French Studies: The Romantic Era

Francophone and French Studies: The Romantic Era

Comparative Analysis of The First Movements in Beethoven's and Mozart's C Minor Piano Concertos

This paper compares the first movements of Beethoven's and Mozart's piano concertos in C minor, exploring the similarities and differences between these two seminal works. By examining various aspects, including the key, composition background, form, motifs, harmony, orchestral arrangements, dialogue between instruments, and piano writing, the study reveals Mozart's profound influence on Beethoven while highlighting the latter's unique innovations. The analysis delves into the significance of the C minor key for both composers, their use of the double exposition form, and the structural design of the movements. The study also investigates the composers' employment of similar motifs and materials, demonstrating how they maintained unity throughout their respective works by deriving most elements from the first exposition. Furthermore, the paper examines the intricate dialogue between the piano and the orchestra, showcasing how both composers utilized the orchestra for harmonic support, melodic enhancement, and imitative counterpoint. Particular attention is given to the way Beethoven paid homage to Mozart through his treatment of the cadenza and the coda. The comparison of piano writing reveals similarities in texture and general structure, with both composers employing arpeggios, scales, and trills as central themes, contrasted with lyrical sub-themes. However, the study also highlights Beethoven's more dramatic and extended treatment of the contrasting sections. Through this comprehensive analysis, the paper illuminates the profound influence of Mozart on Beethoven's compositional style while also showcasing the latter's innovative approach, which helped usher in a new era of musical expression at the dawn of the Romantic period.

Romanticism and Nonviolence: Percy Bysshe Shelley Exhumed

This paper posits that in his prose and poetry, Percy Bysshe Shelley (an English poet of the Romantic period) articulates both the philosophy and methodology of nonviolence as a response to oppression, repression and marginalisation. It also contends that although his theory significantly impacted the formation of the philosophies and socio-political campaigns of later nonviolence activists, especially the Indian Civil Rights Activist Mahatma Gandhi, Shelley has not been sufficiently credited for the ground-breaking political philosophy of nonviolence. This article thus explores Shelley’s philosophy of nonviolence in his poetry, prose, dramas and pamphlets. It compares the nonviolence philosophies of Gandhi and Shelley and brings out Shelley’s unquestionable influence on Mahatma Gandhi. The article raises questions about why Shelley was not credited with the philosophy of nonviolence and suggests possible reasons for this apparent near lack of global consideration for the English Romantic poet despite his pioneering the philosophy. Having proceeded thus and upon thorough academic investigation, the article irresistibly concludes that contrary to popular socio-political opinion, Percy Bysshe Shelley is the unrivalled father of nonviolence as an ethical and pragmatic philosophy for socio-political mutation. By this study, Shelley is given his rightful position in matters of nonviolence and thus exhumed as a poet-philosopher whose philosophy has outlived his existence and practised to date by activists to press for reform.

Primeval and scenic: ways of seeing Swedish national park forests as arenas for experiences enabled by the Swedish Tourist Association’s yearbooks (1886–2013)

ABSTRACT This article extends insights into the discourse on Swedish forests as arenas for experiences by unravelling, making visible, and problematizing how ways of seeing such forests have been constructed over time. This is investigated concerning the Swedish national parks, which have offered tourists experiences of forest milieus since the early 1900s. Representations in the Swedish Tourist Association’s yearbooks published between 1886 and 2013 are analyzed to get hold of ways of seeing. Through the analysis, two ways of seeing are identified: 1) primeval national park forests as arenas for experiences, and 2) scenic national park forests as arenas for experiences. Primeval forests are represented with old, wild, pristine, and inaccessible qualities, offering tourists experiences of forests far away from humanity, where time has remained still. Scenic forests are constructed to have aesthetic, grand, and calming qualities that create feelings among tourists of being in a beautiful, outstanding, and safe place. Both ways of seeing contain traces of romanticism, which indicates that they represent and communicate meanings of the Romantic movement of the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Romantic Movements

This Reflections essay considers antiracist theory and practice and its impact on Romantic Studies today as displayed in a master’s-level module aimed at introducing the use of theory to postgraduate students of nineteenth-century studies. Alongside these concerns, the reflection considers what it means to feel “Romantic” today, as well as the role and usefulness of discomfort in postgraduate pedagogy.

Shelley and the Retentive Memory

This essay approaches the familiar subject of memory in Shelley through examining his exceptional gift for retentive memorization, a gift not unique to him, but also conspicuously possessed by Byron. A few instances, mostly taken from the Shelley circle and the poet Henry Kirke White, demonstrate the encouragement given to the development of a retentive memory during the Romantic period, and the admiration that it attracted, but also the apprehensiveness lest it become an end in itself. Examples follow of memory feats performed by Byron and Shelley independently and interactively, focusing on the effect upon Shelley’s political poetry of 1819 of hearing Byron read the early part of Don Juan to him in the autumn of 1818, including portions that Shelley could not have reread in the interval. The question arises: did Shelley worry that his memory was a burden, tempting him into unwitting plagiarism? His draft revisions indicate that he sometimes might have done.

On Music and Tradition

In this paper we elaborate on the question how to bridge the gap between contemporary (New) music and the tradition of the past, often called ‘classical’ music. First we analyze the notion of tradition (in classical music) as being distinct from traditional music, nationalism and traditionalism. A central role in this paper is dedicated to the role of counterpoint education following J.J. Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum in the development of Central-European classical music between the late Renaissance and late Romantic periods. The developments in the 20th century New Music reveal several important trend breaks. The controversies raised during the early Renaissance, regarding the practice of polyphonic singing, are discussed with respect to their impact on music development in later ages. From these controversies and the re-discovery of Nicholas de Cusa’s view on mysticism, the experience of the non-experience in polyphonic music is elucidated. Herewith, an illuminative heuristic is found in the enfolding-unfolding paradigm both in music and pictural arts, from the Renaissance till the present.

The Motif of Freedom as a Reflection of the National Identity of Brazil through the Prism Romantic Era Poetry

The article is devoted to the study of the process of the formation of Brazilian national identity through the prism of poetry as one of the most important elements of the nation's identity and maturity. The relevance of this topic is connected not only with the growing interest of Russian humanitarian science in the ‘Other West’, but also with application to the task of successful interaction with representatives of a particular culture requiring familiarity with the meanings that determine their self-identification. It is necessary to have a holistic understanding of the process of national identity formation and social factors behind its transformation. The characteristic features of the rich culture of the Luso-Brazilian world nevertheless suggest a high degree of differentiation in the identity of the people of Portugal and its former colonies. The aim of the study is to analyze how the motif of freedom manifests itself in the works of Brazilian Romantic poets, reflecting the gradual conceptualization of Brazilian national and cultural identity. To achieve this goal, the following objectives were set: first, to systematize the existing works on the national identity of Brazilians; second, to identify the motif of freedom in specific poems by prominent poets of the studied era and trace how this motif reveals identity of a Brazilian. The materials of the study are the corpus of works by Brazilian Romantic poets, comprising both the original works and their translations into Russian (including translations made by the author of this article). The leading research method was culturalhistorical; the corpus study was conducted by means of content analysis. The novelty of the study was determined by the fact of addressing the motif of freedom, considered as a key factor of Brazilian identity. As a result, it is shown how this motif was formed in the work of Brazilian Romantic poets of the 19th century, branching out into many conceptualizations of freedom. The study of the corpus of Brazilian poetic texts provides convincing evidence that the motif of freedom was one of the first steps for Brazilian society to realize its unique identity. The author concludes that the beginning of this process in the 19th century is associated with such vectors of comprehension of freedom as the desire of Brazilians to return to their homeland from foreign lands, escape from reality/life, freedom in the choice of Christian religion and freedom from sin, the desire to show strength, awareness of the important role of indigenous peoples and praise of the Indian struggle against oppression and despotism, resistance to slavery and colonizers. Gradually, however, the ontology of freedom from is complemented by an ontology of freedom for: Brazilian poets find imaginative solutions that reveal the identity of their people as a cultural search for a counterpart of communication.

Exploring Love and Friendship in Jane Austen's Novels

Jane Austen's early works are contained in three notebooks, all of which still exist today in various museums and libraries. "Love and Friendship" and "The History of England" are the two most notable works from her early writings.” Love and Friendship" is an epistolary novella written when Austen was a teenager. It consists of letters from the heroine, Laura, to Marianne, the daughter of her friend Isabel. The story is a parody of romantic novels of the time. In it, Laura falls instantly in love with a mysterious stranger, Edward, who she almost immediately marries. Laura also meets a friend, Sophia, with whom she instantly connects in a way that is so ridiculous that it is clear that Austen was making fun of conventional stories of the day. The complex story has them undertaking perilous journeys, solving mysteries, and having adventures, all while fainting near-constantly in a clear parody of what women in romance novels would do. Ultimately, Edward and Sophia both die and Laura retires to the countryside to mourn. The story is complete with many of the cliches of Romantic era novels, including falling in love and friendship at first meeting, unexpected inheritances, and others.

The Celebrated Elizabeth Smith: Crafting Genius and Transatlantic Fame in the Romantic Era by Lucia McMahon (review)

The Celebrated Elizabeth Smith: Crafting Genius and Transatlantic Fame in the Romantic Era by Lucia McMahon (review)

Expression of Romanticism Literary Movement in Samuel Taylor Coleridge s Life and Work

The main purpose of the article is to study the expression of romantism literaru movement in Samuel Taylor’s life and works. Actually, prominent Romantic writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge embodied the fundamental principles of Romanticism in both his writing and personal life. Thus, this abstract looks at how Coleridge's close relationship to nature, his investigations into the paranormal and imagination, and his focus on personal experience and emotion captured the essence of Romanticism. In order to provide light on Coleridge's contributions to Romantic literature, this abstract explores his poetry, prose pieces, and critical essays via literary analysis, biographical research, and historical context study. It also explores Coleridge's persistent influence on English literature and philosophy, emphasizing his significance as a pivotal character of the Romantic age. Romantic literature, which peaked in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is distinguished by its emphasis on individualism, emotions, imagination, and nature. A well-known member of this movement, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lived and worked by many of its central ideas. He was well-known for leading an unusual lifestyle and being curious in academia. Coleridge's work was richer because of his travels, problems in his life, and reflection.

Głuchoniemcy w polskim dyskursie naukowym i publicznym od XVIII wieku do okresu PRL

The author analyses the history of scientific and public discourses growing around the phenom-enon of Głuchoniemcy (Deaf‑Germans) in Poland. In the literature, this term refers to the des-cendants of the German‑speaking colonists who settled in the Polish‑Ruthenian border in the mid‑fourteenth century. The history of interest in this phenomenon from the eighteenth to the twentieth century reflects the cultural changes and social tensions over time. These descendants of the German‑speaking colonists living in the Carpathian Foothills were mentioned for the first time in the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century as a regional phenomenon of cultural diversity. In the era of Romanticism, when the importance of national identity in Europe grew, so‑called Deaf Germans were portrayed as fully assimilated Polish settlers with only relics refer-ring to German culture. At the end of the nineteenth century, after the publication of Józef Szujski, they became the subject of a political debate and were placed in the context of peasant history. Finally, the socio‑political situation of the interwar period led to the term “Głuchoniemcy” being removed from scientific and public discourses for many decades. After World War II, the absence of the topic became permanent, still directly related to the Polish‑German antagonism that set the directions of scientific interests of ethnographers and historians in Poland. The article tries to answer the question about the course of these changes in the perception of Deaf Germans by looking for external causes as well as those resulting from the nature of the subject of interest.

Two Doctors as Self-Fashioned Overreachers: Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Only a few themes in English literature may have the same profound symbolic significance such as the pursuit of human potential and the quest to surpass the human capability as employed Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus presents the perilous exploration of knowledge and power within the context of Renaissance, the era that is brave and fertile in terms of intellectual rebirth while challenging of the long-held truth about individualism. Similarly, Shelley’s Frankenstein reflects the Romantic period’s preoccupation with individualism and the breaking of societal and natural norms centered around an academic’s hubristic struggle to conquer the mysteries of life and death. Both narratives not only stand out more than horror stories, but also turn out to be an exploration of self-identity, morality, societal norms and the inextricable link between science and the notion of the self. Thus, both protagonists, Faustus and Victor Frankenstein, embody their eras’s ethos, with the former reveling in the Renaissance’s celebration of human potential and the latter mirroring the Romantic fascination with the sublime and the transgressive. Taking these perspectives into account, this article delves into how Doctor Faustus and Frankenstein critically engage with their characters’s attempts to transcend social, cultural and scientific barriers through their process of self-fashioning. Both works not only encapsulate the social atmosphere of their respective times but also serve as cautionary tales about the ramifications of overreaching ambition.

Joanna Baillie’s De Monfort: A Crisis of Class Identity

The late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries in Britain are characterised by socio-cultural and political turmoil and transformations specifically due to the impacts of the revolutions, the growth of the middle class and thus the changing class hierarchies. Within this chaotic socio-political atmosphere, the Gothic becomes a very dominant and popular genre projecting these transitions of this period. Joanna Baillie who is influenced by the Gothic craze of the age like many writers is regarded as one of the most significant playwrights of the period. In one of her well-known Gothic plays, De Monfort (1798), Baillie portrays the anxiety and fear of the loss of power and status by the aristocracy. Thus, she creates a Gothic atmosphere surrounded by claustrophobic and paranoid anxiety of De Monfort. De Monfort, who is also affected by fear and paranoia dominating the period as a result of the political sanctions, cannot adjust himself to the changing social structure. Considering the changing class hierarchies, particularly De Monfort’s attachment to his family name becomes the core of the play in terms of his fear of obliteration. In the context of the socio-cultural and political dynamics of the Romantic period, this study aims to argue how Baillie illustrates the shifting class dynamics and the anxieties of the period with reference to her Gothic play, De Monfort.

Novalis:The Blue Flover of Romanticism

The essay is devoted to the reconstruction of the philosophy of art of Novalis, one of the prominent German Romantics, who presents it in his writings in a fragmentary way. Research of this type appears in scholarly literature for the first time; it utilizes a complex philosophical-aesthetic method of analysis of texts of the German thinker. Novalis appreciates art as one of the highest achievements of humanity, which elevates the human being from ordinary life to spiritual heights. Art is a free expression of the artists' Ego. Art is simultaneously a “self-contemplating and a self-creating nature.” The creative principles of nature are transformed within the spiritual world of the artist and express themselves in art. The secrets of nature are revealed to the artist. The artists sees something great in the least significant things. The beautiful is the object of art and this creates kinship between all types of art. Artists (including painters) do not imitate the external world but they create by means of their internal world. All types of art gravitate towards mutual harmony and foreshadow a synthesis of the arts of sorts. Novalis positions poetry above all other arts. This is because according to him poetry establishes heavenly wisdom on earth, elevates the human being over everyday life, and serves as the foundation for all other arts. Philosophy is internally linked to poetry and serves as its theory. The philosopher must be a poet. The poet lives a special, contemplative life and is a wise and prophetic person. Novalis imagines the future Romantic age as fabulous, magical, poetic, ironic, alogical. “Intelligent chaos” will play a specific role in it. All earthly will be elevated to the heavenly. Novalis considers the novel as one of the principal forms of Romatic poetry and presents its chief characteristics.

Grandeur de l’homme, selon Pascal

A long tradition of criticism, which has its roots in the Romantic era, admires Pascal as a dark, a tortured writer, an incomparable representative of human misery, of the anguish of existence, of the abysses that threaten us all. It is commonly understood that he is a magnificently sinister writer. This perspective, well established today in most minds, in the honest man as well as in the student or teacher, reduces Pascal’s work to a poor apologetic manoeuvre and transforms his anthropology into a one-sided indictment, impressive by its very excesses, which we savour with a shudder. The present study aims: 1) to sketch a genealogy of this error of perspective, 2) to examine its dangers and measure its damage, to indicate why it is not acceptable, and 3) to propose some reflections on the place of the greatness of man in Pascalian anthropology. Three patterns of greatness can be identified in the Pensées: logical, paradoxical and phenomenological.

Spanish Women in British Literary Annuals (1823-1830)

This paper explores the representations of Spain, and particularly Spanish women, in five British literary annuals of the late Romantic period (1823-1830): Forget Me Not, The Literary Souvenir, Friendship’s Offering, The Keepsake and The Amulet. Literary annuals were illustrated anthologies of poems, short stories and travelogues which started to be published in Britain in the 1820s and were sold annually as presents for Christmas and New Year. Mostly aimed at a female audience, these annuals were imbued with a spirit of cosmopolitanism, featuring texts about countries and regions from all over the world. Spanish themes were constantly present in the selected literary annuals, where with a few notable exceptions, most female Spanish characters are countermodels of femininity that deviate from the traditional feminine values fostered by these publications and defy the idealised depictions of (British) women appearing in their texts and engravings. These representations of Spanish women, which underline the ethnic and cultural differences between Spain and Britain, are in tune with the romantic image of the country promoted by British writers at the time.