Romanticism and Enlightenment in Literature: Key Aspects
Romanticism and Enlightenment in Literature
Romanticism is a cultural movement in literature and art that developed in the first half of the 19th century. Nationalisms arose, and the bourgeoisie became the ruling social class following the Industrial Revolution. This era also saw the rise of liberalism, an ideological movement advocating economic and political freedom. Romanticism marked the end of 18th-century rationalism.
Key Features of Romanticism
Its general features are:
- Individualism and Subjectivism: Feelings and emotions take precedence. Ideals and aspirations are central to the life and works of the Romantic artist.
- Freedom: A passion for freedom is reflected in all aspects of the time.
- Nationalism: Rising popular and national values in each country.
Romanticism in Spain
In Spain, Romanticism was a late and short-lived movement, arriving in 1833. It peaked in 1835 with the premiere of the drama Don Alvaro or the Force of Fate by the Duke of Rivas. Except for writers Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro, it largely disappeared by mid-century.
Romantic Themes in Literature
- Author’s Personal Feelings: Recurring themes include dissatisfaction with the world and life, such as sadness, loneliness, and melancholy.
- Rebellion and Escape: Dissatisfaction with the world leads the Romantic author, through imagination, to distant and unknown worlds.
- Nature and Landscape: Descriptions reflect the author’s feelings. Nature mirrors their mood, with predominant sad and gloomy landscapes that express the author’s tormented soul.
The Enlightenment in Spain
The spread of Enlightenment ideals in Spain was slow, as they were embraced by a minority. They created numerous institutions to promote the study and knowledge of science and the arts, renewing the educational system and critically analyzing the Spanish economic situation.
The Literature of the Enlightenment
Enlightenment literature modified the characteristics of literary genres from the Baroque period.
Poetry
Reason takes precedence over feelings. Issues are often pastoral and anacreontic.
Theater
Underwent a profound change from the Baroque style and its lack of rules. Adoption of the rule of the three unities (time, place, and action), suppression of the imaginative or fantastic. Useful, everyday themes are favored. Separation of tragic and comic elements.
Essay
Stands out above all other genres. The best literature of the Enlightenment is found in essays.
Illustrated Essayists
José Cadalso’s Cartas Marruecas and Jovellanos’s prose are mostly didactic, proposing solutions to improve the country’s situation.
Illustrated Theater
Moratín stands out as a satirical poet, notably with his work The Girls’ Consent.
Other Authors
Iriarte and Samaniego focused on teaching literature, with an interest in recovering the fable, whose protagonists are animals, to extract a moral lesson.
Aesthetic Ideas of the Eighteenth Century
Defending the primacy of Aristotelian rules: unity of action, place, and time. Boileau represents this thought. These neoclassical ideas can be summarized as follows:
- Rational sentiment should be imposed.
- Write following the models of classical antiquity and the Renaissance.
- Value the imitation of the classics over originality.
- Purpose of clarity.
- Forced separation of theatrical genres. Comic and tragic elements were not mixed in the same work, as in the Baroque period.
French Authors
- Montesquieu: Persian Letters
- Voltaire: Candide
- Rousseau: The Social Contract
British Authors
- Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
- Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels