Research Paper about Romanticism, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Literature

Download Research Paper about Romanticism and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Literature in PDF only on Docsity! ROMANTICISM A Library Research Paper Presented to Dr. Milynor Mejia Acibo By Jimerezel Loyde A. Lara Abigail Ramos Gloria Anne Bernadette Bragado February 2016 |. Introduction Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world. It is a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries. The German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who is given credit for first using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form." Imagination, emotion, and freedom are certainly the focal points of Romanticism. Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of Romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of and worship of nature. The Romantic Period in literature has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Today, in literary theory and history there is a distinction between the popular usage of romanticism and romantic, and the scholarly usage to name the Romantic period and Romanticism as a literary movement. What are the characteristics of Romanticism? Interest in the common man and childhood- Romantics believed in the natural goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban life of civilization. They believed that the savage is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar. Strong senses, emotions, and feelings - Romantics believed that knowledge is gained through intuition rather than deduction. This is best summed up by Wordsworth who stated that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Boy were the Romantics a sentimental lot. A flower could move them to tears. An old Greek urn could set them brooding for hours. These writers were flat out obsessed with feelings. In fact, one of the most famous definitions of poetry is the one that William Wordsworth, the father of British Romanticism, gave us. He said that poetry is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" Awe of nature - Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature. Romantics rejected the rationalization of nature by the previous thinkers of the Enlightenment period. Celebration of the individual- Romantics often elevated the achievements of the misunderstood, heroic individual outcast. The Romantics weren't conformists. No, they would be the kids in high school who wear strange clothes, listen to underground music, and don't hang out with anyone else. They're not trying to fit in with the cool crowd; on the contrary, they sneer at everything that everyone else considers "cool" or "hip" because they have their own, extremely sophisticated, standard of coolness. And one of the Romantics’ standards of coolness was to go against the grain. The Romantics didn't want to be constrained by social, literary, or political conventions. They believed, above all else, in being true to their own individuality. Importance of imagination Use of Common Language Use of Common Subjects Interest in Past History/Ancient Greek and Roman Elements Interest in the Rustic/Pastoral Life Celebration of the Simple Life One Sided/Opinionated Idealized Women Examples of Philippine Literature that the researchers consider is under the category of Romanticism 1) Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa The plot of Jose Garcia Villa's short story "Footnote to Youth" involves the struggles that a young man named Dodong has with family life, marriage and the responsibilities of adulthood. At the beginning of the story, Dondong isn't sure about how to talk to his dad about his desire to marry Teang, the love of his life. As the story goes on, Dodong and Teang both have a hard time dealing with their decisions and wonder if matters might have ended differently had their choices not been the same. Another area of focus in "Footnote to Youth" is the juxtaposition of the regrets and rueful knowledge that often come with adulthood with the naive joy of youth. This makes the story represent the circle of life in a way, showing how matters travel in a complete circle, ultimately repeating themselves. "YOUTH will triumph LOVE will triumph next will be the LIFE". This sentence shows how Jose Garcia Villa summed up the message of his short story. Teenagers show their behavior as an affectionate individual in the world of love. Mostly, they give everything in the name of love not knowing that they are just only one of the victim. They're being hot and aggressive will soon lead to early marriage. To raise a family is not just an easy job to do, sooner or later they come to realize how difficult to be a father and mother and the choice they have chosen. The real scenario of LIFE will reveal. Also in this story, the simple and common life of a husband and wife with many children are being depicted which also reflects the characteristics of romanticism. Another thing is characters remained flat, the situations remained unparticularized, the overall design consisted of only two colors-black and white. But more importantly, Urbana at Feliza reinforced the subversive force of works writteh in the romance mode. By celebrating the patterns of life under the colonial regime and by depicting this life as the desired goal, Urbana at Feliza cast doubt on the belief that the old and tested ways of our ancestors were worth preserving. The text seemed to argue that the ways of our forefathers properly belonged to the past. In many ways, Urbana at Feliza became an example for ethical and social behavior for many Filipinos. 4) Madaling Araw by Ifigo Ed. Regalado This 1909 political novel contained traces of the romance mode. Society's contradictions were ably depicted; characters were created in order to flesh out ongoing conflicts. The story came to its inevitable ending in an explosion of violence that destroyed the evildoers. But the ending exuded a visionary aura as a character passionately envisioned the creation of a new order out of the bloodbath. In a number of these works, a promise was made that Eden could still be recovered, and that it would be paradise on earth. 5) Roman Reyes's Andrea Liwaswas (1909) and Pusong Walang Pug-ibig (1910), and Rosauro Almario's Mga Taga-bukid (1911) We consider these novels as part of romantic literature because in these novels, the ideal world was set up to contrast with the familiar world. On the one hand were characters who were obedient to their parents, faithful to their vows in love and marriage, socially committed; they constituted the inhabitants of the world being threatened. The threat was exemplified in the disobedient children, very often faithless in love and marriage, and highly individualistic. The second group was to be feared because of the confusion they could sow; hence, they must be banished from the world in order to impose order and harmony once again. Thus, these novels should be seen as the novelists' way of expressing their desire to articulate what in life could not be asserted forcefully. By holding up the westernized Filipinos who were contemptuous of traditional ways as objects of caricature, the novelists were able to affirm traditional values. By constructing models and exemplars through the other type of characters, the writers attempted to make of these literary constructs sources of lessons or aral for the reading public. Like the awit and corrido, these novels simplified for the readers the complex patterns of life. 6) Balagtas's Florante at Laura (1838) and Orosman at Zafira, lbong Adarna, Doce Pares de Francia, Bernardo Carpio or Principe Baldovino These literary works (awit, korrido) are considered romantic because these works appeared on the surface as thrilling adventures involving a number of royal personages and mighty warriors to whom exciting and dramatic things invariably happened. The marvelous and the fantastic served as a colorful backdrop for love and adventure. There was spectacle and pageantry, for example, in the exploits of Bernardo Carpio who was driven by the desire to find his real identity. The readers rooted for the youngest of the three brothers in lbong Adarna who were given the task of capturing a mysterious bird which could heal the dying king. There were responsive chords touched by the love stories revolving around Florante and Laura, Orosman and Zafira, and others. Abstracted from the period in which these stories emerged, they seemed bereft of any serious social or political concern. Concentrating on the contents, one could conclude that only mindless entertainment was preferred in these stories, a respite from life's problems. But examined not as reflections but as refractions and even negations of reality, the awit and corrido would appear to set up an alternative world different from the nineteenth-century Philippine realities. Juxtaposed against history, the texts would be graphic commentaries on the familiar world determined by the parameters of a colonial experience. In these works, what was presented was a simplified ideological pattern that was more acceptable than the complex of ideological forces that conditioned the people's lives. The unceasing struggle that was life was terminated once the usurper, the tyrant and the villain were meted out their just punishment as the story ended. Within the conventions of the awit, it was easy for the reader to discern a comprehensible design as the characters pursued their individual destinies, as they encountered the pains and anguish of unjust imprisonment and banishment, and as these individuals were reconciled with their loved ones. By using the convention of the happy ending (a distinct feature of the romance mode), the text was able to resolve what appeared to be problematic in life. The freedom that was restored as the narrative ended was a condition not allowed to exist in real life. For in life, the usurper still occupied the throne, the king was dying, the villain roamed freely, and the lovers were still pining for each other. 7) Twilight Hugs by Genoveva Edroza-Matute We consider this short story has a romance mode in it because this story is basically a simple story told on the perspective of a grandmother who is on her twilight years already. In the text, one can easily understand the content and flow as the author lll. Conclusion As researchers, we therefore conclude what set romantics apart from other writers. They were unconventional. Since they believed in being true to their emotions, they refused to be constrained by social or literary or political conventions—conventions of any kind, for that matter. They were rebellious, they were individualistic...and their writing reflected it. They were all about poetic experimentation, which means that the most important Romantic writers revolutionized the way poetry was written. IV. Insights Nowadays television, Internet, ads, movies: everyone is telling us what we should be doing with our lives, what we should want, what we should look like, and what we should feel. Of course we should want to be rich. Of course we should want to be skinny. Of course we should want to get married and have kids and live in the suburbs. It gets tiring living in a culture that's always putting pressure on us to conform, to be like other people, and to want what everyone else wants. And we begin to question ourselves: are we weird for not wanting to take that job? For not wanting to dress like that? For not wanting to behave in that way? These questions are how romantic writers would think about. Through this research, we figured out that their message to readers is you do you. V. References Teofilo del Castillo y Tuazon and Buenaventura S. Medina, Jr. Philippine Literature from Ancient Times To The Present: Quezon City C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature, Sixth Edition Soledad S. Reyes. The Romance Mode in Philippine Popular Literature Modesto de Castro, Urbana at Feliza (Manila: Libreria Martinez, 1902) Soledad S. Reyes, Ang Nobelang Tagalog: Tradisyon at Modernismo (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1982) Ernest Bernbaum. Anthology of Romanticism