Enlightenment and Romantics’ Reaction Research Paper.
The enlightenment also referred to as the ‘age of reason’ is a significant period of European history defined by profound philosophical, intellectual, social and cultural movement that sprawled across England, Germany, and France among other parts of Europe in the 17000s. Influenced by scientific revolution that had begun in the region at around 1500s, the movement interpreted and understood the world purely on reason. Enlightenment and Romantics’ Reaction Research Paper.Historians in the field of literature such as Klaus-Peter Koepping (91) suggest that the era of romanticism was a reaction to the rationalization of the enlightenment. Chronologically, the enlightenment is perceived as a departure from the middle ages, and a welcoming period for romanticism.
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During the enlightenment period, human ability to reason within the realms of logic, science, academics, intellectuality, and empiricism was significantly glorified. As a reaction of enlightenment, romanticism was more than just an intellectual-oriented movement; it searched deeper than the rationality of enlightenment with a subconscious appeal. Romantics and enlighteners differ to a great extent. Miriam Wallace (19) believes that the two sets of thinkers are the exact opposite of each other on how they perceive the world. As opposed enlightenment, which was primarily based on reason, romanticism, as the name suggests, was all about feelings.
Unlike other forms of “isms,” romanticism is not directly associated with political aspects as a reaction to enlightenment movement, the views of the romantics differed from those of the enlighteners on many things. For example, the enlightenment movement perceived the middle ages as dark, characterized the period as driven by superstition and ignorance. However, refuting this view, romantics countered this logic and idealized the middle ages as an era of spiritual depth and adventure. Enlightenment and Romantics’ Reaction Research Paper.Feelings are linked to experiencing life in general, exploring the exciting aspects of life, and for this reason, the romanticism movement is comprised by things such as poetry, art, and music, things that were not as prevalent in other two periods.
The glorification of human ability to reason in the epoch of enlightenment, as mentioned earlier, meant the enlightenment thinkers valued educated and cultured people in different academic disciplines, romantics, in contrast, valued uncivilized people such as farmers and children. This is because romantic thinkers held the belief that the uncivilized people were closer to nature and less corrupted by civilization. This is because the enlightenment favored culture while romanticism centered on nature. On a similar note, and using a hypothetical example, if one would ask both a person of enlightenment and a romantic where they would prefer to live, the former would say the city because that’s the place educated people to live and where civilization is ultimately realized while the romantic would prefer the upcountry because of the nature involved. Enlightenment and Romantics’ Reaction Research Paper.
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William Paulson analyzes the two from a perspective of literature and notes that these different eras produce varying literature in many ways. For instance, enlightenment literature took up public social topics and incorporated satire to promote societal reforms, which was the primary value of the enlightenment. An excellent illustration of this observation is by Alexander Pope, an enlightenment thinker, who implied that we all have the same thought but the poet expresses it better than the rest of us. The implication of this is that literature was objective. In the case of romanticism is lyric poetry, subjectively delivered in the sense that poets express their emotions and perceptions.
Work Cited
Koepping, Klaus-Peter. “Romanticism in the work of Adolf Bastian: The historical roots of anthropology in the nineteenth century.” Fieldwork and footnotes. Routledge, 2013. 89-106.
Paulson, William R. Enlightement, romanticism, and the blind in France. Vol. 782. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Wallace, Miriam L. “Introduction: Enlightened Romanticism or Romantic Enlightenment?.” Enlightening Romanticism, Romancing the Routledge, 2016. 11-30. Enlightenment and Romantics’ Reaction Research Paper.