Romantic literature The spirit of romanticism first appeared in literature. In France, the pioneer of romanticism was Rousseau, who preached the supremacy of emotion and the goodness of human nature. A group of writers responded to his slogan of "returning to nature" and expressed their feelings about nature in their creations, describing the charm of nature and expressing their love, pursuit and attachment to beautiful things, ideals of freedom and the countryside.

Rosseau’s Romanticism Characteristics

1. Strong subjective color, preferring to express subjective thoughts, and focusing on expressing personal feelings and experiences. Emphasis on subjectivity and underestimation of objectivity and emphasis on self-expression and underestimation of objective imitation.

2 Like to describe and praise nature. (Particularly outstanding)

Authors like to place their characters in the simple and peaceful nature, setting off the ugliness of real society and the beauty of their own understanding.

3 Pay attention to medieval folk literature. The imagination is richer, the feelings are sincere, the expression is free, and the language is simple and natural.

4 Pay attention to artistic effects: exotic Qingdao mood, contrast, exaggeration, and the extraordinary character of the characters.

Romanticism: an artistic and innovative movement launched in Western Europe in the 18th century. A basic creative method and style of literature and art. Together with realism, it is the two main trends in the history of literature and art. The word romanticism (English romantic) originated from the language and literature of some ancient Roman provinces in southern Europe. The different dialects in these areas were originally a mixture of Latin and local dialects, and later developed into the Romance languages. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a large number of legends and ballads in local language literature were written in Romance languages. These works focused on describing the magical deeds, chivalrous spirit, and mystery of medieval knights. Stories with such characteristics later became known as romance, that is, knight stories or legends. Romanticism is reflected in literature, fine arts, architecture, music and other artistic fields.

As a creative method and style, Romanticism emphasizes subjectivity and subjectivity in expressing reality, focuses on expressing the ideal world, puts emotion and imagination at the top of creation, and often uses passionate language and transcendent reality. Use imagination and exaggeration to create an ideal image. Literary and artistic creations in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, have had this characteristic since the beginning. For example, the poems of Qu Yuan and Li Bai in China and the novel "Journey to the West" by Wu Chengen, as well as the works of Goethe and Schiller in Germany, Hugo and George Sand in France, Byron and Shelley in the UK, etc. all have distinct romanticism. feature.

As a literary and artistic trend, romanticism emerged and became popular in Europe from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. It was the era of the bourgeois revolution. The bourgeoisie was on the rise. It demanded the liberation of personality and emotional freedom, resisted the rule of feudalism in politics, and opposed the shackles of classicism in literature and art. To meet this need, romanticism emerged.

Romantic literature The spirit of romanticism first appeared in literature. In France, the pioneer of romanticism was Rousseau, who preached the supremacy of emotion and the goodness of human nature. A group of writers responded to his slogan of "returning to nature" and expressed their feelings about nature in their creations, describing the charm of nature and expressing their love, pursuit and attachment to beautiful things, ideals of freedom and the countryside. The representative of early French Romanticism was Chateaubriand. His creations remember the ideals of the past, promote the power of religion, and express strong negative thoughts and emotions. In 1800, Mrs. Starr published her book "On Literature", which introduced her views on romanticism. In this work and another work "On Germany", she raised the issue of romantic nationalism and laid the theoretical foundation of French Romanticism. The success of Victor Hugo's Prologue to Cromwell and Ernani marked the victory of Romanticism over Classicism. Hugo's works are magnificent, have a strong idealistic color, and express deep sympathy for the middle and lower class people. They are masterpieces of French and European romantic literature. George Sand's novels that express utopian socialist ideals and expose the omnipotent evil of money are also excellent works in French romantic literature. Strictly speaking, however, Romanticism originated in Germany and England. The earliest major manifestation of Romanticism was the Sturm und Drang period in Germany. The Schlegel brothers became leaders of German Romanticism in the last decades of the 18th century. The journal "Athenaeum" edited by the Schlegel brothers played an important role in promoting the propaganda and theoretical construction of the Romantic movement, known as Jena Romanticism. They demand the liberation of individuality, advocate freedom of creation, and propose breaking the boundaries of various arts. But their romantic theory has a strong color of subjective idealism and religious mysticism. Another faction of German Romanticism was the Heidelberg School. Representative figures include Arnim, Brentano and the Brothers Grimm. They attached great importance to folk literature and went deep into the folk to collect folk songs and fairy tales, which played a positive role in the development of romantic literature. In addition, the creations of Hoffmann, Holderlin, Heine, Goethe, Schiller and others also occupy an important position in German romantic literature. The main representatives of British Romanticism are the Lakeside poets Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.

Wordsworth regarded poetry as "the natural outpouring of strong feelings" in the preface to the reprint of "Lyric Ballads". This preface later became the manifesto of the British Romantic poets. Representatives of British Romantic literature in the early 19th century were Byron, Shelley, Keats and others. They criticized the power of the feudal church, showed their democratic tendency to fight for freedom and progress, and artistically developed and enriched the form and rhythm of romantic poetry. Scott, the representative figure in the novel, is good at organically combining historical events with bold imagination to create colorful pictures. Under the influence and promotion of Western European Romanticism, the Russian poet Zhukovsky broke the norms of classicism in the early 19th century and created many beautiful lyric poems and narrative poems, which played an important role in the rise of Russian Romanticism. The early romantic creations of the Decembrist poets and Pushkin and Lermontov were full of revolutionary passion, praising the ideas of anti-authoritarianism and fighting for freedom, and were outstanding representatives of Russian romantic literature. Eastern European romantic literature is represented by the Polish revolutionary poet A. Mickiewicz and the Hungarian revolutionary poet S. Petofi. Their creations have a distinctive spirit of patriotism and strong national characteristics. After the mid-19th century, European romantic literature was gradually replaced by realist literature.

Romantic Art In the 1860s and 1870s, some painters in Rome explored various possible avenues beyond the strict academic principles of neoclassical art. Among them, the Swiss Henri Fuseli is the most outstanding for his paintings of strange anomalies. His painting "The Dream Demon" focuses on depicting the irrational power of thought. Blake, the English painter and poet, developed his own carefully constructed cosmology based on Christian mythology, and his watercolor technique was exquisite. In a later generation of painters Constable and Tyner combined the vividness of watercolor techniques with oils. Constable painted English countryside scenes, exploring the complexity of atmospheric light and color. Tyner takes advantage of the natural effects of light to create dynamic compositions that make the viewer immerse themselves in the scene, as if they are swimming with the picture. In Germany, the landscape painter Runge tried to use symbolic techniques to depict personal spiritual temperament as part of the ordinary natural spirituality. Friedrich was a devout religious man. He used images such as a lone tree or a cross high in the sky to imply the respectability and awe of nature and the soul. In France, the main Romantic painter who employed historical and literary subjects was Delacroix. In addition to experimenting with color and light, he expressed his emotions with vigorous brushwork. He was fascinated by exotic themes, especially the nomadic life in the deserts of North Africa.

His passionate depictions of animal life reflect similar interests to Géricault's, who was revolutionary in his choice of contemporary events as subjects.