Romantic Literature: A Deep Dive
Romantic Literature
Historical Context
The French Revolution (1789) spread new political, ideological, and social ideas throughout Europe, proposing a parliamentary and constitutional system. Society divided into absolutists and liberals. The Industrial Revolution, beginning in late 18th-century England, led to the rise of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie’s dominance. Napoleon’s invasion of Spain sparked the War of Independence (1808-1814), and King Ferdinand VII later restored absolutism.
Characteristics of Romantic Literature
- Individual Voice: Romantic writers sought to find their unique voice and create their own universes, resulting in a lively and rhetorical style.
- Rebellion: Romantics questioned contemporary morality and bourgeois values, often featuring marginalized characters to symbolize their rebellious attitudes.
- Evasion: The clash with society and the past led to a yearning for escape to distant and remote locations.
- Nature as Reflection: Romantics used nature to express their emotions.
- Nationalism: Concerned with the soul of the people, Romantics embraced popular and traditional literary forms, including legends and folktales.
Romantics favored lyric poetry and theater, but also cultivated prose, particularly historical novels and journalism.
Key Figures in Romantic Literature
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Goethe’s Faust tells the story of a man obsessed with experiencing life intensely, while Werther is an epistolary novel about a protagonist who commits suicide for love.
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Byron embodies the prototype of the Romantic “poète maudit,” expressing his revulsion against a boring reality and a morality he rejected.
Romantic Poetry
Romantic poetry is characterized by:
- Varying verse and stanza lengths.
- Themes of ideal love, passion, and individual loneliness in a rejecting society.
- Rhetorical devices like questions, exclamations, and apostrophes.
Types of Romantic Poetry
- Lyric Poetry: Expresses the poet’s feelings and worldview (e.g., Espronceda, Bécquer, Rosalía de Castro).
- Narrative Poetry: Features stories based on legends (e.g., Espronceda).
Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885)
Rosalía de Castro represents the most intimate side of Romanticism, writing in both Galician and Castilian. Her seemingly simple poetry blends an anguished vision of reality with nostalgia for her homeland.
Romantic Prose
Romantic prose included both fiction and journalism. Bécquer’s Legends are a notable example of fictional narrative. Mariano José de Larra stands out in journalism, with articles examining Spanish customs.
Romantic Drama
Romantic dramas often feature mysterious, heroic protagonists marked by tragic fates in gloomy settings. They blend verse and prose. Key playwrights include:
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas
Don Álvaro, or the Force of Destiny (1835) consolidated Romantic theater, featuring a typical Romantic hero subject to a tragic fate.
José Zorrilla
Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio reimagines the Don Juan myth, portraying him as a romantic rebel saved by love.
Other Key Figures
José de Espronceda
. For very young fight against absolutism why exile in 1833. On his return continued with literary and political activity until his death in 1842. In the work of outstanding Espronceda songs and two long narrative poems. The devil world, which raises philosophical issues and the student of Salamanca, which recreates the myth of Don Juan. Mariano José de Larra: Born in Madrid in 1809, but educated in France, where his family was exiled in 1813. On his return to Spain, Larra founded two newspapers. Despite his literary success, a deep sentimental and ideological crisis led him to suicide in 1837.GUSTAVO ADOLFO BECQUERNacio in Seville in 1836. When I was young, studying painting, but at age 18 when he moved to Madrid decided to study poetry. His life was marked by illness, economic hardship and failures of love. He died in 1870. GRAMATICASinonimia total: synonyms total share all their meanings, so they are interchangeable in any part contexto.Sinonimia: Synonyms partial share some meaning, but not all, so they are interchangeable in some contextos.Hiperónimos: These are terms which, by have a very large significance, include other more concrete or specific. The word flower, for example is a hyperonymic about words like carnation, jasmine or margarita.Hipónimos: These are words with the restricted meaning which can realize the reality that refer others of wider significance. Jasmine words, daisy, lily … are hyponyms of flower.