Understanding Romanticism and Realism in Literature
Romanticism and Realism
Romanticism is a cultural and political movement that originated in Germany and the United Kingdom in the late eighteenth century as a revolutionary reaction against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and Classicism, emphasizing feeling and emotion. A key feature is the break with classical tradition and its stereotypical rules. Freedom is a constant theme, making its revolutionary nature unquestionable.
Because Romanticism is a way of feeling and interpreting nature, life, and humanity, it manifests differently in each country and region where it develops. It flourished primarily in the first half of the nineteenth century, extending from England to Germany, then to France, Italy, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico. Its literary fragmentation later led to various streams, such as Parnassianism, Symbolism, Decadence, and the Pre-Raphaelites, gathered under the umbrella of Post-Romanticism, which was an outgrowth of Hispanic Modernism. Romanticism made fundamental contributions to literature, art, and music. Subsequently, Surrealism, an avant-garde movement of the twentieth century, challenged the tenets of romantic self-exaltation.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870)
Born in Seville, Bécquer studied painting in his teens but moved to Madrid at 18 to become a poet. His life was marked by disease, economic hardship, and romantic failures. He died in Madrid in 1870. Bécquer’s poetry and prose, especially his Rhymes and Legends, reflect his cultural background.
Realistic Literature (1840-1890)
Realistic literature is defined as the fiction produced in Europe and the United States from 1840 until the 1890s, when realism was superseded by naturalism. This form of realism began in France with the novels of Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary, 1857) and the short stories of Guy de Maupassant, reacting against lyricism and romantic idealization. Honoré de Balzac and his broad social vision in the novels of The Human Comedy are also important figures.
In Russia, realism was represented in the plays and short stories of Anton Chekhov. The novelist George Eliot introduced realism to English fiction, stating in Adam Bede (1859) that its purpose was “to give a faithful representation of commonplace things.” In Spain, realism took on a personal stamp, diverging from the French canons, with prominent writers like Emilia Pardo Bazán, Benito Pérez Galdós, and Leopoldo Alas.
In American literature, notable figures include Federico Gamboa in Mexico, Eugenio Cambacérès in Argentina, and Eduardo Acevedo Díaz in Uruguay (see magic realism). Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were pioneers of realism in the United States. Henry James, inspired by Eliot and Howells, developed a sub-genre: the psychological novel, focusing on the characters’ motivations and behavior.
In general, the work of these writers illustrates the essence of realism: authors should not select facts based on ethical, aesthetic, or preconceived ideas but on impartial and objective observations. Concerned with the real representation of life, realists tried to downplay the argument for the representation of the characters, focusing on the middle class and their concerns and issues.