romanticism and realism essay

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

• Romanticism

Théodore Gericault

Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct

Alfred Dedreux (1810–1860) as a Child

The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses

Horace Vernet

Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault (1791–1824)

Inundated Ruins of a Monastery

Karl Blechen

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds

John Constable

Eugène Delacroix

Royal Tiger

Stormy Coast Scene after a Shipwreck

French Painter

Mother and Child by the Sea

Johan Christian Dahl

The Natchez

Wanderer in the Storm

Julius von Leypold

The Abduction of Rebecca

Jewish Woman of Algiers Seated on the Ground

Théodore Chassériau

The Virgin Adoring the Host

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Ovid among the Scythians

Kathryn Calley Galitz Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

Romanticism, first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800, gained momentum as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and flourished until mid-century. With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. Though often posited in opposition to Neoclassicism , early Romanticism was shaped largely by artists trained in Jacques Louis David’s studio, including Baron Antoine Jean Gros, Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. This blurring of stylistic boundaries is best expressed in Ingres’ Apotheosis of Homer and Eugène Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus (both Museé du Louvre, Paris), which polarized the public at the Salon of 1827 in Paris. While Ingres’ work seemingly embodied the ordered classicism of David in contrast to the disorder and tumult of Delacroix, in fact both works draw from the Davidian tradition but each ultimately subverts that model, asserting the originality of the artist—a central notion of Romanticism.

In Romantic art, nature—with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential for cataclysmic extremes—offered an alternative to the ordered world of Enlightenment thought. The violent and terrifying images of nature conjured by Romantic artists recall the eighteenth-century aesthetic of the Sublime. As articulated by the British statesman Edmund Burke in a 1757 treatise and echoed by the French philosopher Denis Diderot a decade later, “all that stuns the soul, all that imprints a feeling of terror, leads to the sublime.” In French and British painting of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the recurrence of images of shipwrecks ( 2003.42.56 ) and other representations of man’s struggle against the awesome power of nature manifest this sensibility. Scenes of shipwrecks culminated in 1819 with Théodore Gericault’s strikingly original Raft of the Medusa (Louvre), based on a contemporary event. In its horrifying explicitness, emotional intensity, and conspicuous lack of a hero, The Raft of the Medusa became an icon of the emerging Romantic style. Similarly, J. M. W. Turner’s 1812 depiction of Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps (Tate, London), in which the general and his troops are dwarfed by the overwhelming scale of the landscape and engulfed in the swirling vortex of snow, embodies the Romantic sensibility in landscape painting. Gericault also explored the Romantic landscape in a series of views representing different times of day; in Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct ( 1989.183 ), the dramatic sky, blasted tree, and classical ruins evoke a sense of melancholic reverie.

Another facet of the Romantic attitude toward nature emerges in the landscapes of John Constable , whose art expresses his response to his native English countryside. For his major paintings, Constable executed full-scale sketches, as in a view of Salisbury Cathedral ( 50.145.8 ); he wrote that a sketch represents “nothing but one state of mind—that which you were in at the time.” When his landscapes were exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1824, critics and artists embraced his art as “nature itself.” Constable’s subjective, highly personal view of nature accords with the individuality that is a central tenet of Romanticism.

This interest in the individual and subjective—at odds with eighteenth-century rationalism—is mirrored in the Romantic approach to portraiture. Traditionally, records of individual likeness, portraits became vehicles for expressing a range of psychological and emotional states in the hands of Romantic painters. Gericault probed the extremes of mental illness in his portraits of psychiatric patients, as well as the darker side of childhood in his unconventional portrayals of children. In his portrait of Alfred Dedreux ( 41.17 ), a young boy of about five or six, the child appears intensely serious, more adult than childlike, while the dark clouds in the background convey an unsettling, ominous quality.

Such explorations of emotional states extended into the animal kingdom, marking the Romantic fascination with animals as both forces of nature and metaphors for human behavior. This curiosity is manifest in the sketches of wild animals done in the menageries of Paris and London in the 1820s by artists such as Delacroix, Antoine-Louis Barye, and Edwin Landseer. Gericault depicted horses of all breeds—from workhorses to racehorses—in his work. Lord Byron’s 1819 tale of Mazeppa tied to a wild horse captivated Romantic artists from Delacroix to Théodore Chassériau, who exploited the violence and passion inherent in the story. Similarly, Horace Vernet, who exhibited two scenes from Mazeppa in the Salon of 1827 (both Musée Calvet, Avignon), also painted the riderless horse race that marked the end of the Roman Carnival, which he witnessed during his 1820 visit to Rome. His oil sketch ( 87.15.47 ) captures the frenetic energy of the spectacle, just before the start of the race. Images of wild, unbridled animals evoked primal states that stirred the Romantic imagination.

Along with plumbing emotional and behavioral extremes, Romantic artists expanded the repertoire of subject matter, rejecting the didacticism of Neoclassical history painting in favor of imaginary and exotic subjects. Orientalism and the worlds of literature stimulated new dialogues with the past as well as the present. Ingres’ sinuous odalisques ( 38.65 ) reflect the contemporary fascination with the exoticism of the harem, albeit a purely imagined Orient, as he never traveled beyond Italy. In 1832, Delacroix journeyed to Morocco, and his trip to North Africa prompted other artists to follow. In 1846, Chassériau documented his visit to Algeria in notebooks filled with watercolors and drawings, which later served as models for paintings done in his Paris studio ( 64.188 ). Literature offered an alternative form of escapism. The novels of Sir Walter Scott, the poetry of Lord Byron, and the drama of Shakespeare transported art to other worlds and eras. Medieval England is the setting of Delacroix’s tumultuous Abduction of Rebecca ( 03.30 ), which illustrates an episode from Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe .

In its stylistic diversity and range of subjects, Romanticism defies simple categorization. As the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1846, “Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling.”

Galitz, Kathryn Calley. “Romanticism.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Brookner, Anita. Romanticism and Its Discontents . New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux; : , 2000.

Honour, Hugh. Romanticism . New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

Additional Essays by Kathryn Calley Galitz

• Galitz, Kathryn Calley. “ The Legacy of Jacques Louis David (1748–1825) .” (October 2004)
• Galitz, Kathryn Calley. “ Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) .” (May 2009)
• Galitz, Kathryn Calley. “ The French Academy in Rome .” (October 2003)

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02/09/2013, by CLAS

Rethinking the relationship between Realism and Romanticism in the nineteenth century

Romanticism and Realism are arguably the two most prominent nineteenth-century movements in European literature and art, typically conceived as mutually exclusive and somehow reflecting the philosophical conflict of idealism and realism that runs through the history of modern European culture, or indeed is seen as universal. Nineteenth-century European literary history is seen as a shifting response to the rise of modernity, which moves from Romanticism through Realism to Modernism, a dynamic in which writers such as Dickens and Thackeray, Balzac and Flaubert play a crucial role. By contrast, traditional literary historiography perceived the German Realism as a deviation from this European trajectory, disconnecting German literature during the second half of the century from the European mainstream and leading to literary provincialism. Although long criticised for being too simplistic, stereotypical views such as these persist in some recent research into German Realism and its place between Romanticism and Modernism.

An new volume, based on an international and interdisciplinary conference at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies in London and co-edited by Professor Dirk Göttsche (Nottingham), now promotes a radical rethinking of these traditional notions, reassessing the relationship of German literary Realism and its various strands with the rich field of German Romanticism, while also considering the broader European context of German literary and cultural history during the nineteenth century:

Realism and Romanticism in German Literature . Eds. Dirk Göttsche and Nicholas Saul. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2013. ISBN 978-3-89528-995-8, see http://www.aisthesis.de/titel/9783895289958.htm for the table of contents and further information.

When writers and critics such as Gustav Freytag, Julian Schmidt and Berthold Auerbach constituted the new literary movement called ‘Realism’ in response to the 1848 revolution and its defeat, ‘Romanticism’ acted as a critical foil for the new departure. This polemically motivated and historically-anchored terminology has survived in today’s orthodox view that ‘Realism’ and ‘Romanticism’ mark not just two distinct periods in literary history, but also two radically opposed concepts of literature. Combining theoretical approaches and overviews with a range of case studies, interdisciplinary investigations and comparative enquiries, this volume reassesses German Realism’s relationship with Romanticism and sheds new light on the multiple ways in which writers from Stifter and Keller to Raabe and Fontane remember Romanticism, engaging with its problems, themes, motifs and poetics. By re-examining the engagement with Romanticism in the literature and culture of Realism between c. 1840 and 1900, the book challenges existing concepts of periodisation and works towards a more differentiated understanding of the complex dynamics in the field of nineteenth-century ‘realisms’ and their role in the overarching intellectual trajectories from Romanticism to Modernism. Contributions are in English and in German.

The book cover shows Wilhelm Raabe’s water colour ‘Steilküste’, copyright Stadtarchiv Braunschweig, Depositum des Städtischen Museums, H III 10 AKZ 2008/074:10.

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Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature Research Paper

Introduction.

Romanticism, Realism, and modernism are among the most influential literary movements in literature. Romanticism focused on abstract ideas, and Realism aimed to depict real-life scenarios, while modernists revolted against the previous writing styles. The impact of these ideas can be seen in modern literature and works such as “After the Ball,” which showcases a scenario of the Regency England servant’s life. This paper will analyze the impact of Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism on modern literature.

Romantic literature is characterized by several key traits, such as a love of nature, an emphasis on the individual and spirituality, a celebration of solitude and sadness, an interest in the common man, an idealization of women, and a pathetic fallacy and personification. Nature was viewed by romantic authors as a teacher and a source of boundless beauty. The poem “To Autumn” by John Keats is one of the most well-known examples of Romanticism. Keats personifies the season and charts its development from its initial appearance following the summer through the harvest season and finally to the conclusion of fall as winter is about to start.

A literary movement known as Realism, which began in the middle of the 19th century, emphasized realistic, true, and relevant subject matter as a reaction against Romanticism. The romantic age, or romantic literature, was frequently characterized by magical tales that were perceived by many to be disconnected from reality. In contrast to this, Realism was a development from Romanticism into more relatable circumstances and narratives in literature. The utilization of familiar, commonplace individuals and circumstances served as a powerful example of Realism in writing.

French author Stendhal is renowned for his role in promoting the Realist literary movement. Along with other authors, he produced characters and circumstances that were understandable to regular people. In typical settings and eras, middle- and lower-class people were frequently the center of Realism. Subjects and backgrounds of Realism in American literature and beyond were influenced by industrialism, history, racism, social mobility, war, and the burgeoning scientific fields of the century.

Realism appealed to a wide spectrum of readers since the aforementioned list was symbolic of actual issues and events that people dealt with at the time and are still dealing with now. By the middle of the 20th century, Literary Realism as a movement had ended (“Realism”). However, it served as an inspiration for later authors who continued to try to depict characters and circumstances that readers could relate to. Next, modernistic literature gained popularity as the 19th and 20th centuries came to a close. Modernism was a revolt against Realism, which had very abstract writing. The authors of the era experimented and employed novel methods.

For example, the author of “After the Ball” uses realism themes to describe a situation happening in the Regency England era. The main character of this short story is placed into real-life circumstances, which links this work to Realism. However, she also reflects on her life and future in the following dialogue: “What hope do I have for a future? Last evening, I overheard many young women lamenting their limited options for suitable husbands.” Hence, this work shows some of the more modern ideas and prompts the reader to think about topics beyond real-life situations.

In summary, the three movements discussed in the paper had very different themes and settings, each influencing modern literature. A love of nature, stress on the individual and spirituality, a celebration of solitude and grief, and others are the key characteristics of romantic literature. Industrialism, history, racism, social mobility, war, and the developing scientific fields of the century all had an impact on literary Realism in American literature and literature. Modernism was a revolution against Realism and abstract writing.

“Realism.” Encyclopedia Britannica .

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IvyPanda. (2023, August 3). Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature. https://ivypanda.com/essays/romanticism-realism-and-modernism-in-literature/

"Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature." IvyPanda , 3 Aug. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/romanticism-realism-and-modernism-in-literature/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature'. 3 August.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature." August 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/romanticism-realism-and-modernism-in-literature/.

1. IvyPanda . "Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature." August 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/romanticism-realism-and-modernism-in-literature/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism in Literature." August 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/romanticism-realism-and-modernism-in-literature/.

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Romanticism and Realism

British and french prints 1800 – 1870.

William Blake, Jerusalem, plate 32 (fragment) (trial proof) [recto]; Europe. A prophecy, plate 2 (fragment), title page (trial proof) [verso] , 1804-c1820, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1974.

Catalouge Essay

Realism against symbolism, either classicism or romanticism, idealism versus naturalism:

Art has always worked out its tensions by presenting oppositions.

But all these tendencies are present at any one time. Sometimes one style dominates, and talented young artists flock to the banner.

Two hundred years ago in Europe, Romantic ideas began to prevail against the neo-classical values of the late 18th century. Instead of admiring restraint, harmony and balance, Romantic artists asserted the importance of emotion and drama. The present was more vital than the past, irrational dynamism more desirable than static perfection. Classical art's sobriety provoked a strong resurgence of passion, colour and imagination.

The belief that art, music and literature should elicit emotional rather than intellectual responses led to a Romantic view of art's exalted, almost religious role. In England, William Blake, John Martin and Henry Fuseli attempted to express their inner visions and deepest responses to the world around them. These ranged from fear of and delight in the supernatural to awe inspired by the grandeur of nature. Their art reached to an indefinable realm of the sublime, encompassing beauty and death, light and obscurity.

Poor, eccentric, little known in his lifetime, William Blake is now celebrated as a poet and a visionary. His illuminated books and manuscripts consist of small but intense watercolours, relief etchings and calligraphy Blake preferred to illustrate texts that had a deep resonance for him, passages from the Bible as well as his own verse. Jerusalem the emanation of the giant Albion , on which Blake worked between 1804 and 1820, is a prophetic poem about the history and salvation of Britain. He weaves together biblical tales and legends from antiquity, his visions conveyed in words and vivid pictures.

Plate 32 portrays Vala attempting to cover the naked Jerusalem with her veil. Jerusalem, a manifestation of female nature, estranged from Albion, is flanked by her daughters. They stand on an island lapped by the sea, with St Paul's Cathedral on the left and Westminster Abbey to the right. The classical architecture of St Paul's represents the organised religion despised by Blake, while Westminster stands for the living Gothic tradition. Delicate washes of watercolour and translucent ink enliven the etched sepia delineation of the women's bodies. Their muscles are strongly emphasised, in the manner of Michelangelo.

After success with his grandiose paintings of biblical subjects, John Martin began printmaking in the 1820s. The 24 mezzotint compositions he produced to illustrate Milton's Paradise Lost 1824 were worked directly onto the new, soft steel printing plates, which allowed more impressions than copper plates. On their exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1825, a critic commented 'there is a wildness, a grandeur and a mystery about his designs which are indescribably fine'. Martin is noted for his use of dramatic scale, as well as the striking tonal effects of mezzotint — rich blacks to brilliant whites achieved by burnishing the plate from darkness into light.

A changing Europe saw new icons emerge, new bearers of the collective imagination. Napoléon sought to free the Continent from the old regimes, but increasingly tried to dominate it with French military power. Beethoven at first supported the liberator, then opposed a nationalist dictator, Britain was at war with France from 1793 until 1815, which allowed little artistic dialogue across the Channel.

Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet's homely yet outstanding French soldier 1818 is a new figure of bravery, enduring the carnage of a Napoleonic battlefield. He is Everyman, the embodiment of domestic heroism, now no longer aristocratic. The soldier stands for the suffering, the victories and defeats of the French people which have forged a new nation.

Newly-prized passions challenged older ideals of clarity and calmness. Any experience which enhanced sensation was valued for its intensity. For Eugene Delacroix and Théodore Géricault, wild animals — or even exotic peoples — concentrated the emotions. Delacroix portrayed a Royal tiger 1829, its powerful body brooding on a flat ground against distant mountains. The tiger becomes another bony landscape, its fur stroked in with velvety lithographic crayon, the whole dominated by the beast's crystalline, palpably yellow eyes.

European thinkers — geographers, philosophers, theologians, antiquarians, writers — started to explore another world of beliefs, of the senses, of experience. Their craze for novelty focused on Arabia and Turkey, the politically decadent societies of the waning Ottoman Empire. Europeans saw the Middle East as powerful and unpredictable, while the element of sensuality in Muslim civilisation was a shock to Western sensibilities. For Antoine-Jean Gros and Géricault among others, the military caste of the Mamelukes, the mercenaries who ruled Egypt, displayed the virile virtues. Ousted by the imperial forces of Britain and France, some joined Napoléon. Their courage and sacrifice were celebrated by Géricault in his monumental lithograph Mameluke of the Imperial Guard defending a wounded trumpeter against a Cossack 1818.

At this time, horses exemplify either wild nature or human mastery. Stallions fight, or are devoured by, lions and tigers; cavalry or Arab warlords ride them; they also show their bloodlines and racing prowess. In Adonis 1824 by James Ward, a racehorse stands on a rocky headland, mane and tail swirling in the wind: brute nature, tamed yet untamed.

Francisco del Goya conveys extremes of emotion in his etching series on Spanish politics and society — Disasters of war; Proverbs, Caprichos . He satirises repressive institutions, brilliantly exposing human behaviour and character. During his exile in France, from 1824 until his death in 1828, Goya experimented with the new medium of lithography. His last print series, The bulls of Bordeaux 1825, reveals the crowd as generating animal passions. Division of the arena spotlights the matadors and bulls, at the same time including us, the viewers, in the drama. Goya's agitated crayon depicts the spectacle and the restless crowd from a vantage point high in the stands.

The Orient, and Arabia in particular, was more than the scene of military adventures: it was the location of biblical events from the Old Testament and the life of Jesus. David Roberts and David Wilkie travelled to Egypt, Syria and Turkey in the 1830s and 1840s, viewing the peoples and landscapes of the Middle East as characters in, or settings for, ancient religious texts. It was assumed that contemporary Palestinian dress had not changed, that despite Islam, Arabic civilisation had frozen for over a millennium.

Roberts documented the remnants of the many empires he saw — Petra, Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Ottoman Empire. The pursuit of the exotic posed Europe as the centre, a stable, domestic environment from which journeys could begin. English 'milords' ventured into rural Britain, much as they travelled to France, Switzerland or Italy to experience the picturesque and the sublime. In art, J.M.W. Turner showed new vistas of mountains, the scenery explored in poetry by Wordsworth or Coleridge. Eugène Isabey represented the cliffs and mountains of France as a newly-discovered landscape of the mind: vertiginous, remote, veiled in mystery and romance.

Pastoral landscapes show the charming world of shepherds and their flocks, a theme drawn from Virgil's poetry. Samuel Palmer's The sleeping shepherd 1857 dreams in his vine-clad bower, as the sun rises on a ploughman already at work. James Duffield Harding's bucolic scene of Endsleigh, Devon 1827 represents another, less literary rendition of a specific place. Both are idealised: Palmer looks to Blake where Harding relies on John Constable's transcendent art based on close observation of nature.

Camille Corot disseminated his versions of classical landscape with etchings, lithographs and the proto-photographs of clichés-verre , or glass prints. His views of Rome or the Barbizon forest look backward to idyllic landscapes by Nicolas Poussin, the French painter of 17th-century Italian Arcadia. In his etching Near Rome 1866, narrow hatching creates the effect of light through leaves, in contrast to heavier, looser lines for the tree trunks. Corot's vision is that of a woodland inhabited only by philosophers, not the urban reality of Europe in the 1860s.

One measure of the shift from Romanticism to Realism is the artist's attitude towards human presence in the landscape. For the Barbizon artists — Jean-Francois Millet, Charles Daubigny and Ferdinand Chaigneau especially — the people who worked the land were a central preoccupation, not merely exotic appendages.

Herders, labourers, needleworkers are the subejects, in their rural or domestic settings. Millet’s Diggers 1855-56 are hard at work in a field, but the simple, solid figures achieve a kin of nobility. As well as painting in oils, Millet used the medium of etching to distribute many copies of his images.

Social and political change reflected the shift from agricultural to urban life for a majority of people. Against the worthy, picturesque or classical depictions of country life stood the lively, almost journalistic view of the 19th-cntury city life, usually in the capitals of France and England, Paris and London conjured up bustling sophistication, trade, culture and progress. For the Englishman on the Grand Tour, like the artist Thomas Shotter Boys, Paris meant the medieval remnants of the Notre Dame.

Edouard Manet recorded the tragedy of the anarchists and socialists of the Paris Commune of 1871. After military defeat by the Prussians, Parisians revolted against their reactionary French rulers. Manet’s The barricade 1871 proposes the artist as witness: government forces execute the French patriots staging a last insurrection. Central to the composition is a line of soldiers shooting a horrified victim. Manet’s reaction is conveyed by the sketchy, animates quality of his lithographic crayon.

After the 1848 revolutions failed, many artists on the Continent were more involved in burning aesthetic questions than in politics. The American etcher and painter James McNeill Whistler lives in France and England from 1855. He was an outsider who participated in the debates of ‘advanced art’ – the etching revival, plein-air or open air art, increasing abstraction and symbolism. Instead of reworking sketches to produce conventional academic compositions, modern painters left their studios. They took their easels into the streets or out in the countryside. From 1857 Whistler often worked ‘from nature’, drawing directly onto his small, prepared etching plates.

Whistler’s brilliant studies of old women, village streets, his nephew and niece, and his mistress Furnette were collected for publication as Twelve etchings from nature 1858, known as The French set. At the time the medium of etching was being revitalised on both sides of the Channel. In Britain it was promoted by Whistler's brother-in-law Seymour Haden, a successor to the engraving tradition of Blake and Turner and the pastoral landscapes of Constable and Harding. Whistler's daring etching technique and direct approach produced new effects of subtlety and strength.

In the struggle of ideas last century, the Romantics won the early years while Realists held the central decades. But how distinctive are the two groups? Romantic artists looked inward or far away for their inspiration, rather than directing their view onto prosaic objects. The English mystics saw religious visions, the French imperial grandeur, while both interpreted the animal world as nature unconfined. By mid-century, scientific, dispassionate investigation of nature and society seemed to hold the key to a new understanding of the world. The Romantic search for exotic and heroic subjects in contemporary life was over, Realists preferring more humble material.

The Realists, committed to objectivity, were criticised for their reluctance to moralise: they did not show poverty as either pitiable or ennobling, for example. In fact, they did make strong visual statements about beliefs and institutions, particularly the conditions of urban and rural life, in the new ways they depicted everyday subjects. The heightened passions of Romanticism are often contrasted with the sober observations of Realism. But it is clear that the art of both groups is based on intense scrutiny of their subjects. Realist artists applied and carried further the Romantic program of art. Rather than conflicting aesthetic models, perhaps the main difference is one of mood.

Christine Dixon and Kathryn Weir

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The National Gallery acknowledges the First Peoples of this land and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country

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8 Realism, Romanticism, Modernism

• Published: November 2012
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This chapter lays out a theory of modern literary history as a series of linked responses to the modern world-view. Far from designating the concrete reactions that govern any specific and historical human community, the logical qualities of the responses aim to describe the empty slots and possibilities that necessarily obtain in relation to all propositions, and hence to all human communities in which propositions are made. The responses are generally described in relation to the general modern world-view outlined so far. The Realistic, Romantic, and Modernist modes are discussed.

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Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism, Romanticism

The following is borrowed directly from donna campbell’s useful resource on literary movements :, regionalism:.

Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century this mode of writing became dominant in American literature. According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature, “In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description” (439). Its weaknesses may include nostalgia or sentimentality. Its customary form is the sketch or short story, although Hamlin Garland argued for the novel of local color.

Setting: The emphasis is frequently on nature and the limitations it imposes; settings are frequently remote and inaccessible. The setting is integral to the story and may sometimes become a character in itself.

Characters : Local color stories tend to be concerned with the character of the district or region rather than with the individual: characters may become character types, sometimes quaint or stereotypical. The characters are marked by their adherence to the old ways, by dialect, and by particular personality traits central to the region. In women’s local color fiction, the heroines are often unmarried women or young girls.

Narrator : The narrator is typically an educated observer from the world beyond who learns something from the characters while preserving a sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ironic distance from them. The narrator serves as mediator between the rural folk of the tale and the urban audience to whom the tale is directed.

Plots. It has been said that “nothing happens” in local color stories by women authors, and often very little does happen. Stories may include lots of storytelling and revolve around the community and its rituals.

Themes: Many local color stories share an antipathy to change and a certain degree of nostalgia for an always-past golden age. A celebration of community and acceptance in the face of adversity characterizes women’s local color fiction. Thematic tension or conflict between urban ways and old-fashioned rural values is often symbolized by the intrusion of an outsider or interloper who seeks something from the community.

Broadly defined as “the faithful representation of reality” or “verisimilitude,” realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life. A reaction against romanticism, an interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism. According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, “Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence” ( A Handbook to Literature 428).

Characteristics

(from Richard Chase, The American Novel and Its Tradition )

• Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot
• Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.
• Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past.
• Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.
• Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.
• Interior or psychological realism a variant form.

The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola’s phrase, “human beasts,” characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.

Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believed that the laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood. Naturalistic writers thus used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters’ lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment. Although they used the techniques of accumulating detail pioneered by the realists , the naturalists thus had a specific object in mind when they chose the segment of reality that they wished to convey.

Characters:  Frequently but not invariably ill-educated or lower-class characters whose lives are governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, and passion. Their attempts at exercising free will or choice are hamstrung by forces beyond their control; social Darwinism and other theories help to explain their fates to the reader. See June Howard’s Form and History for information on the spectator in naturalism.

Setting:  Frequently an urban setting, as in Norris’s McTeague . See Lee Clark Mitchell’s Determined Fictions , Philip Fisher’s Hard Facts , and James R. Giles’s The Naturalistic Inner-City Novel in America.

Techniques and plots:  Walcutt says that the naturalistic novel offers “clinical, panoramic, slice-of-life” drama that is often a “chronicle of despair” (21). The novel of degeneration–Zola’s L’Assommoir and Norris’s Vandover and the Brute , for example–is also a common type.

Romanticism:

Doubtless the main difference between the novel (realism) and the romance is in the way in which they view reality. The novel renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. It takes a group of people and set them going about the business of life. We come to see these people in their real complexity of temperament and motive. They are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past. Character is more important than action and plot, and probably the tragic or comic actions of the narrative will have the primary purpose of enhancing our knowledge of and feeling for an important character, a group of characters, or a way of life.

By contrast the romance, following distantly the medieval example, feels free to render reality in less volume and detail. It tends to prefer action to character , and action will be freer in a romance than in a novel, encountering, as it were, less resistance from reality. (This is not always true, as we see in what might be called the static romances of Hawthorne, in which the author uses the allegorical and moral, rather than the dramatic, possibilities of the form.) The romance can flourish without providing much intricacy of relation. The characters, probably rather two-dimensional types, will not be complexly related to each other or to society or to the pas t. Human beings will on the whole be shown in an ideal relation–that is, they will share emotions only after these have become abstract or symbolic . To be sure, characters may become profoundly involved in some way, as in Hawthorne or Melville, but it will be a deep and narrow, an obsessive, involvement. In American romances it will not matter much what class people come from, and where the novelist would arouse our interest in a character by exploring his origin, the romancer will probably do so by enveloping it in mystery. Character itself becomes, then, somewhat abstract and ideal, so much so in some romances that it seems to be merely a function of plot. The plot we may expect to be highly colored. Astonishing events may occur, and these are likely to have a symbolic or ideological, rather than a realistic, plausibility. Being less committed to the immediate rendition of reality than the novel, the romance will more freely veer toward mythic, allegorical, and symbolistic forms. –Richard Chase, The American Novel and Its Tradition (13)

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Romanticism And Realism

For my paper, I will be discussing the transition from Romanticism to Realism in literature in the 1800’s. Both styles of literature we’re revolutionary in their time and are still two of the most popular styles of writing today. While Romanticism seems to focus on metaphors and emotions Realism mostly focuses on the character and the aspects of everyday life. Although these two styles are very different it is easy to see how Romanticism lead to the Realism style of writing. Usually in Romanticism the characters tend to be un realistic while in Realism the characters are just regular people. The same theory can be applied to the plot of these styles of writing. In Romanticism, the plot is usually unexpected and adventurous and in Realism …show more content…

Hedda had wealth and a lover, something most people look for in life. Although Hedda was married she was forced to marry under her wealth class. During this time women were given very few rights this gave her almost no opportunity to leave here situation. This lead to her living an empty and selfish life style. Materialism seems to be a huge theme in realism and this play is a great example of that. Another prime example of Realism is Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” This play focuses on the sad life of Ivan. Tolstoy does a great job making the reader pity Ivan in every aspect of his life. Ivan is not only physically sick but he is mentally sick. Like many characters in the Realism period he was very materialistic, lonely, and had no God in his life. Ivan also spent a lot of time and money trying to live a lifestyle he couldn’t afford. Ivan and Hedda are to great examples of characters in Realistic literature. The both seems to be ordinary people with extremely complex lives and no shortage of problems. These characters and plots are very different from the charcters and plots of a Romantic author. Romantic authors tended to have larger than life characters with heroic qualities. Frederick Douglass seemed to be a very brave individual who wanted to make the best of his situation and did exactly that. Not only did Ivan and Hedda not try to make the best of their situations, they made their situations much worse. They spent most of their

Romanticism and Realism: Examples of Mark Twain and Herman Melville Novels

Romanticism and realism are two very different styles of writings. They both came about in the 19th century. Writing through romanticism is a way to express your emotions in a deeper way, but writing through realism is a way to express your true feelings about how the world is. In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick he uses romanticism to express his point. In The War Prayer by Mark Twain, the speaker talks about the real aspects of war.

Life On The Mississippi And The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County

Realism best represents the literary movement that America was facing at the time because the texts’ use detail that show how things really happened, how things really sounded, how they really looked, and used this literary style to get the reader more involved to see how the text will make them react while reading instead of just focusing on the narrator and the writer. While reading The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Twain says “ He never smiled, he never frowned, and he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key” (Twain 4). Twain uses these words to show real details that the other movements would never use in their

Wgu Riwt Task1 Essay

In the late 18th century when the Industrial Revolution started to spread from England to other countries such as France, Spain and Germany and even in the U.S, the changes that its dynamic brought to the society were drastic and radically different of what people were used to until then. The work hours become longer; young children and their parents were working most of the time; new factories opened up and old villages now were the main workforce source to keep the production level up to the demand and supply requests. Villages started turning into urban centers, crowded by large number of people; poor people that

Romanticism : Romanticism And Romanticism

Romanticism was a period time 1750 to 1870 in Europe, Latin America and The United States. Romantic Movement didn’t reach to France until the 1820’s. Romanticism main spirit was against of rule, law and formulas that classicism the different characterized of general in 18th century. Imagination, Subjectivity of approach, freedom, Expression and the idealization of nature will be focused in movement of Romantic Literature. In this period industrial revolution with the social and political norms form as age of enlightenment and against of scientific rationalization of nature. Some Literature element of that period will be emotional, imagination and suspense. Romanticism movement brings some of different writes such as John Keats, Blake William, Wordsworth William and other. They came with the different illustrated, poetry that expresses the language, emotion and imagination. Romanticism is a phenomenon characterized by subjectivity of approach and reliance on the imagination, An Idealization of nature and freedom of though and expression.

Realism, Regionalism And Naturalism In Literature

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

Young Goodman Brown

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M. H. Abrams defines romantic themes in prominent writers of this school in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as being five in number: (1) innovations in the materials, forms and style; (2) that the work involve a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”; (3) that external nature be a persistent subject with a “sensuous nuance” and accuracy in its description; (4) that the reader be invited to identify the protagonist with the author himself; and (5) that this be an age of “new beginnings and high possibilities” for the person (177-79).

Light vs. Dark in Heart of Darkness Essay

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The realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity. The goal was to let details tell the story, and remove noticeable bias of the author through scientific and detailed descriptions. While this form of storytelling undoubtedly is most accurate, it creates difficulties for authors to incorporate their themes into the story. This resulted in an increase in symbolism in realist works. The objects and descriptions within the story are the author’s vehicle for displaying the values and themes of the work. Light and darkness are symbols commonly used in literature, and have held specific symbolic

Ibsen's Hedda Gabler Essay

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Hedda tears down everyone throughout the play, with Lövborg and Brack as the only exception. After being born to a high standing family, her expectations of power are high, but due to her biologic form as a woman she is trapped and unable to take control, “because Hedda has been imprisoned since girlhood by the bars of Victorian propriety, her emotional life has grown turbulent and explosive” (Embler). However, after succumbing to marriage with Tesman, whom she only marries for money and respect, she loses her place in society as she, as a mere woman, cannot retain it. This slowly unwinds Hedda and eventually leads her on to her fatal path. By

Character Analysis Of Hedda Gabler

Hedda arouses sympathy from the readers through her own personal conflicts. She is a woman trapped by herself in a loveless marriage to an “ingenuous creature” (52 Ibsen) named George Tesman. Tesman is a simple soul with very little to offer. Not only is he an entire social class below Hedda, but he is oblivious, insecure due to his own banalities, and overly reliant on his Aunts’, despite being thirty-three-years-old. Hedda married George due to a “bond of sympathy. . .” (31 Ibsen) formed between them and she “took pity. . .” (31 Ibsen) on George. This brings a sense of sincerity to Hedda that was not turned to such a high magnitude preceding this discussion between Judge Brack and herself. Hedda is a lonely, yet independent, soul that wants sexual freedom without

Hedda Gabler’s Freedom and Repression as Understood through the Analysis of a Key Passage

Ibsen uses the relationship and conflict between Hedda and Brack to illustrate Hedda’s struggle to assert her free will and power in a male-dominated society. The two characters are united as social equals who are members of the aristocracy as

The Role Of Realism In The Awakening By Kate Chopin

Realism in literature is basically the successor to romanticism. It first took off and gained footing in 19th century France. The literary style is a more straightforward and realistic style of writing in comparison to romanticism which was all about exaggeration and symbolism. Realism is often interchangeable with naturalism and branches out into regionalism which is interchangeable with local color. This type of writing is responsible for one of the greatest era of literary works.

Examples Of Realism In Hedda Gabler

Hedda has been interpreted as an “unreal, as a defective woman, as vicious and manipulative in nature, as a failed New Woman, or as a woman who is afraid of sex” (Björklund 1). She also could be seen as a woman who is afraid of sex or her own sexuality because homosexuality wasn’t accepted like it is today. According to Björklund, “Hedda’s masculinity defeats the dysfunctional masculinities of Tesman and Lovborg, but, in the bathe with Brack’s hegemonic masculinity, Hedda’s female masculinity becomes absorbed into the dominant structures. Hedda desires masculinity as represented by Brack—power and control—but, in the end, that masculinity is what kills her; she shoots herself with one of her father’s pistols, and her masculinity is absorbed into the patriarchy. Hedda’s masculinity is rejected, but what it represents—power and control—is mirrored by Brack, whose masculinity is reconstructed: he is the one cock of the walk” (Björklund

Characteristics Of Regionalism

Realism is the portrayal of the reality of everyday life and period of literature between 1850-1900. Realist fictions speculate myths, assumptions, social norms, sentimentality, collective wisdom, and prejudices. Realism stories are usually about the middle-class people, and it aims to show a truthful portrayal of truth. Regionalism is a class of realist literature distinguished by closeness to the habits, language, dialects, manners, history, traditions, beliefs of a particular geographical region. Regionalism manifests the characters of both realism and romanticism. Romanticism is cultural the period from 1830-1860 in America. Humankind is naturally good. The characteristics of romanticism are passion and emotion, nature over the man, spiritual, intuition, and insight. "A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett, is an example of local color because of its realism. Jewett uses characteristics of regionalism like dialogue to show the contrast between the locals and outsiders, habits, their daily activities, the dress, features of a place. "Editha" by William is the story of realism which has many characteristics of realism like details about war; he uses dialect to hold out the trend of the story, using middle-class peoples character. Dean Howell uses a part of romantic style but all together its categorized as one of the

The Importance Of Romanticism

Through the late 1700s and early 1800s, the period of Romanticism blossomed. “Romanticism” very loosely describes the era in which modern culture began to take shape. During the Romantic era, many advancements were made in all aspects of people’s lives and cultures. One aspect in particular has held great value even to this day. That aspect being the expansive amount of literature created during the era. The era of Romanticism had its name for a reason. It can be greatly attributed to the romantic style or genre of literature that defined the period. Romantic writers wove many tales of admiration, longing, and aspirations. They were fantastical, in a sense, and almost the antithesis of realism, even. Amidst the great breadth of literature

Romanticism And The Romantic Era

Romanticism came to be in the 18th and 19th centuries which emphasized the imagination and emotions of romanticism. Many people viewed this type of literature as the quality or state of being impractical or unrealistic meaning romantic feelings or ideas. During this time many poets were encouraged to express their true colors and individual uniqueness. The Romantic Era expanded all throughout the world, and reached poets such as Keats, Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth.

Related Topics

• Romanticism
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Short story
• Edgar Allan Poe

The Importance of Realism in Literature

This essay about realism in literature, exploring its emergence, defining characteristics, and notable examples. Realism, born in response to the romanticism of the 19th century, focuses on portraying everyday life and ordinary people without romantic idealization. It emphasizes relatable characters, social critique, and an objective portrayal of reality. Through works like Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” and Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” realism confronts societal issues and invites readers to reflect on their own lives. It’s not just a literary technique but a way to engage with the world authentically, offering insights into the human condition and the complexities of ordinary existence.

How it works

Realism in literature is like a magnifying glass held up to everyday life, intensifying the ordinary details that we might overlook and presenting them to us in a new light. Born in the mid-19th century amidst the social upheavals of industrialization and changing class dynamics, literary realism emerged as a countertrend to the romanticism that dominated the earlier part of the century. It ditched the heroics and exotic settings for the kitchen sink—literally. The minutiae of daily life, the struggles and aspirations of ordinary people became the new subjects of literature.

This was a shift from the escapades of the nobility to the trials of the common man and woman, reflecting a broader democratization of attention and empathy.

What defines realism? At its core, realism is committed to an objective portrayal of life, striving to present the world exactly as it is, without the sugarcoating of romantic idealization or the exaggerations of melodrama. This commitment manifests in a few key characteristics that mark the style and substance of realist literature.

First, realism is characterized by its focus on believable, relatable characters. These aren’t heroes on epic quests or damsels in distress, but everyday people dealing with everyday problems. In realist novels, characters are defined by their environment, their social status, and the mundane challenges they face—from financial woes to familial strife. They are complex, often flawed, and portrayed with psychological depth. The beauty of realism lies in its ability to develop characters that could walk off the page into the real world without anyone batting an eye.

Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” is often cited as a definitive example of literary realism. It narrates the story of Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife who, disillusioned by the banalities of provincial life, seeks solace in romantic novels and eventually, in the arms of others. Emma’s character is tragic, not because she is inherently noble or unduly victimized, but because her ordinary flaws and desires lead to her downfall. Flaubert’s meticulous depiction of Emma’s world, from the drudgery of her daily routines to the texture of the very fabric of her dresses, ensures that the reader is fully immersed in the reality of her existence. The contrast between her mundane environment and her vibrant, often destructive yearnings highlights the central conflict of realism—the clash between idealistic aspirations and harsh realities.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Mark Twain used realism to capture the essence of American life in the late 19th century. His “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” doesn’t just tell the story of a boy floating down the Mississippi River; it’s a canvas displaying the racial prejudices, moral ambiguities, and social hypocrisies of the American South. Huck’s narrative voice—fresh, naive, and colloquial—brings authenticity to the tale, making the social critique all the more potent because it is subtly woven into the fabric of a young boy’s adventures.

Realism is also a tool of social criticism, a way for writers to highlight issues and conditions that they see as unjust or worthy of attention. By presenting life as it is, they hoped to inspire empathy and perhaps demand action. Emile Zola’s novels, for instance, delve into the lives of the working poor, the underbelly of Parisian society, exposing the grim realities of labor and exploitation under the bright lights of the city. His detailed, unflinching descriptions force readers to confront uncomfortable truths about society and its often unseen mechanisms.

Realism, then, serves not just to entertain but to challenge. It asks readers to look more closely at the world around them, to recognize the struggles and triumphs of ordinary people, and to reflect on their own lives and societies. It strips away the glamour and escapism often found in literature to ground stories in the tangible, immediate concerns of real life.

But realism is not merely a passive reflection of reality. It is an active, deliberate choice to engage with the world as it is, rather than as we might imagine or wish it to be. This engagement gives realism its power and its enduring appeal. As society changes, the lens of realism adapts, offering fresh perspectives on the human condition and continuing to resonate with readers who see their own lives reflected in the trials and tribulations of the characters.

Realism has evolved, of course, and its principles have been adapted and expanded by subsequent literary movements. Yet, at its heart, the drive to depict life authentically remains a potent force in literature. It reminds us that at times, the most compelling stories are those that emerge from the simplest, most fundamental aspects of everyday existence.

Whether you are a student trying to get a handle on literary styles, a writer looking to craft more believable characters, or simply a reader seeking stories that speak to the heart of human experience, understanding realism is key. It’s not just a literary technique; it’s a way to see the world more clearly and to appreciate the beauty and tragedy of

ordinary life. And for those looking to explore more deeply, resources like EduBirdie can provide expert guidance, ensuring a richer understanding and appreciation of this pivotal literary movement.

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Romanticism and Realism: Two Literary Movements with Different Ideals

Romanticism and Realism Romanticism is the idealism for a better world. Writers believe that they can portray their beliefs and emotions though their writing. They hoped that this would encourage the people of the world to become something more than what they are now. They valued the human imagination and imposed emphasis on individual freedom and political restraints. They also had a great interest in the middle ages. The emphases on emotion lead to Dark Romanticism such as the poetry by Edgar Allan Poe.

Poe wrote with extreme emotion about death and the loss. While realism s more about the attempt to represent events and social conditions as they are. There is no idealization of events instead writers attempt to be as factual as possible. Writers of this form of literature stress reality over fantasy. They value the attention to detail and an effort to recreate the true nature of reality. This is the reason that most realist literature is written according to the time period of the writer.

It is not to say that what realist writes is a true story exactly but rather it is to convey what is happening in the world at that moment in time. They write about the hardship and the malice with no sugarcoating of events but rather the brutal truth. The individual is an important aspect in the writing of romanticism. The writers view the individual as an important part of society. They reject authority and look to have self reliance. There is no need to have society accept them in order to have the life that they want.

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Emerson wrote "Great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" giving credence that social acceptance is not needed (Emerson 578). While in realism the individual idealism is not as important as the realistic portrayal of the individual and the society. Realistic writers write about how self reliance is portrayed in society. Whether it is oppressed or whether it was achieved. Chopin writes about self reliance as an aspect that the American women at the time have not been able to achieve to its fullest.

Instead self-reliance is something that eludes women due to the social hierarchy that has been established for centuries. In both romanticism and realism pride is a preemptor to the loss of whatever good is one's life. In while in romanticism this is portrayed with exaggeration of potions ND death in "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Realist writers such as Chopin use real situations of slave owners and the issue of race in their lives.

Government and politics has been a subject in literature for a long time. In realism it is the description of the governments and the actions taken by them. It is about the truth of what that the political machine has done to the world. There is no idealism as there is in Romanticism. Politics in romanticist writing is about the hope for a better society. Their way of achieving this betterment is also a part of the romanticism in the literature. GOD By hoosegow

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