Romanticism

The movement arose in the late 18th century as a defense of the human spirit. While the Age of Enlightenment sought to map the world through reason and the Industrial Revolution began to mechanize society, Romanticists argued that these forces were alienating and "disenchanting" nature. They viewed the rise of urbanization and economic materialism as a form of environmental and social degradation.

In response, they looked backward and inward. They idealized the Middle Ages as a "nobler" era of chivalry and organic living, deliberately contrasting it with the soot-stained reality of 19th-century factories. To a Romantic, the world was not a machine to be understood, but a mystery to be felt.

Before Romanticism, art often followed strict classical forms and social conventions. Romanticists flipped this, placing "romantic originality" at the center of the creative process. They believed that true art should be created ex nihilo—from nothing—rather than by following existing models. Figures like William Wordsworth described poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," suggesting that the artist’s internal state was the only authentic source of truth.

This shift transformed the artist from a mere craftsman into a cultural leader or "hero." The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley famously called poets the "unacknowledged legislators of the world." This emphasis on the unique, individual voice created the modern concept of the auteur, influencing everything from 19th-century painting to 21st-century filmmaking.

While "beauty" was traditionally associated with order and harmony, the Romantics were fascinated by the "Sublime"—experiences that were overwhelming, dangerous, or incomprehensibly vast. They were drawn to the supernatural, the exotic, and the "wildness" of nature that humans could not control. This wasn't just an aesthetic choice; it was a spiritual one, intended to provoke a "shivering" of the soul.

This reverence for the natural world had a lasting political impact. By arguing that nature was a source of human insight and emotional health, the Romantics provided the philosophical foundation for modern environmentalism and nature conservation. They believed that breaking away from society to encounter the wilderness was necessary for human sanity.

Philosophically, Romanticism was a "Counter-Enlightenment." By prioritizing intuition and "inner goals" over universal reason, it began to dissolve the Western tradition of agreed-upon values. Historian Isaiah Berlin argued that this shift toward "authenticity" meant that the sincerity of a pursuit became more important than whether the goal was objectively "right."

This had a double-edged legacy. On one hand, it fueled the rise of modern liberalism and the celebration of the individual. On the other, it fueled radical nationalism; if a "nation" felt a certain destiny or identity was "authentic" to its spirit, that feeling could override universal moral laws. This "passionate self-assertion" helped shape the political landscape of the modern world.

Romanticism officially "dispersed" around the time of World War I, as the horrors of modern warfare made the movement’s heroic ideals seem like anachronisms. However, the movement never truly died; it simply moved into new media. The "lush" orchestral style of the Romantic era became the standard for the Golden Age of Hollywood, and most modern film scores still rely on Romantic musical cues to trigger specific emotional responses.

Furthermore, the modern act of "romanticizing" the past or our own lives—focusing on the aesthetic and emotional over the practical—is a direct inheritance from this era. Whether in speculative fiction, political rhetoric, or environmental activism, we still operate within the framework of the Romantic belief that feeling is the ultimate form of understanding.