Romanticism emphasized heroism, mysticism, and emotions, while Realism focused on concrete issues and social justice. Both sought to change the world, but Realism used pointed images to convey the real experience of others. Both were elite cultures with a major impact on the arts.
Romanticism and Realism were two competing styles of artistic and cultural thought and practice. For decades after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Romanticism, which emphasized individual heroism, mysticism, and the power of the emotions, dominated European intellectual life. Realism, which followed Romanticism, refocused the arts and literature on more concrete issues and tended to glorify real individuals, work, and social justice.
These two literary terms of art are part of a larger pattern of cultural history in the Western world. They are two stages of a back and forth between cultural styles that emphasize the real and concrete and those that are more mythical and ephemeral in their focus. Romanticism was preceded by the age of the Enlightenment, and was largely an attempt to break the bonds of careful reason that had defined that era.
The central tenets of Romanticism focused on the heroic power of the individual and of the individual as part of larger, heroic, social and cultural structures. Romantics wrote passionate stories about their nations’ past glories. They imagined themselves part of great peoples with the manifest destiny of reshaping the world. Their works often featured nature, mysticism and magic.
Romantics were often quite suspicious of science, industry and technology. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a classic of the genre. It is filled with the heroic power of the individual, but also filled with troubling questions about science.
The high point of the Romantic movement roughly coincided with the failed populist revolutions of 1848. Realism emerged in the more gritty and pragmatic world that followed the defeat of these idealistic revolts. Both romanticism and realism sought to change the world, but realism employed very different techniques.
Realist art and literature were meant to convey the real experience of other people or cultures. This type of art has often sought to bring about social change by pointing out injustices through the use of pointed images. The Peredvizhniki in Russia painted scenes of human hardship based on their knowledge of the fate of Russia’s working peasantry. Their goal was to make others aware of such injustices.
Both Romanticism and Realism were largely elite cultures, although some authors and playwrights managed to find their way in from the lower classes. The audience of each consisted mainly of well-to-do people from the middle and upper classes. Both movements embraced most forms of artistic practice and had a major impact on poetry, literature, the visual arts and theatre.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
