Romanticism

1. Romanticism
byTasneem Ramadan & Louise Douse
Week
5
Understanding
Performance

2. Romanticism(1798-1850)
 Today the word ‘romantic’ evokes images of love and sentimentality,
but the term ‘Romanticism’ has a much wider meaning
 It covers a range of developments in art, literature, music and
philosophy
 Romanticism, also known as the Romantic era, has been defined by
Heinrich Heine as “the revival of the life and thought of the Middle
ages” (1983, p.1).
 It originated in Western Europe in the second half of the 18th century,
starting with Britain then the rest of Europe
Understanding Performance Week 5
The Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix (1827), Musée du Louvre, Paris

3. Major Questions of the Period
 The controversies which concerned the Romantics were:
1. The Industrial Revolution
2. "The Woman Question”
3. Evolution
4. The French Revolution
5. Enlightenment
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4. The Advent of the Industrial Age
 The creation of the ‘working class’
 Machines over hand labour
 Privately owned industries
 The rich and the poor
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5. Other Changes
 But the changes arising out of the
Industrial Revolution were just one
subset of the radical changes
taking place in this period-among
others were:
1. The democratization resulting
from extension of the franchise
and changes in the role of
women.
2. Challenges to religious faith, in
part based on the advances of
scientific knowledge, particularly
of Evolution.
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6. French Revolution (1789-1799)
 Liberty, égalité, fraternité
 Resistance to monarchy, religion and social difference
 Inspired the liberation, individuality and rejection of prescribes rules in
established art forms
 Individual spirit and democratic ideals.
 In England, the Romantic poets were at the very heart of this
movement. Percy Shelley declared that the French Revolution was
"the master theme of the epoch in which we live” (1964).
Understanding Performance Week 5
La Liberté guidant le peupleby Eugène Delacroix (1830), Musée du Louvre, Paris

7. Enlightenment Vs. Romanticism
Enlightenment
 Reason and judgement
 Concerned with universal experiences
 Values the society as a whole
 Obeys and appraises rules
Romanticism
 Imagination and emotion
 Concern with the particular experience
 Values the individual human being
 Values freedom
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8. Philosophy of
Art
 The character of art and
beauty and our
engagement with them
should shape all aspects of
human life.
 The purpose of art is to
strive towards truth and
knowledge through feeling.
Understanding Performance Week 3
John Waterhouse The Lady of Shallot

9. Characteristics
of the Art
 The stylistic keynote of
Romanticism is ‘intensity’,
and its watchword is
‘imagination’ (Drabble,
1985:842-43).
 It expressed an extreme
assertion of the self and the
value of individual
experience
 Nature, omnipresent and
overpowering
Understanding Performance Week 3
Caspar David Friedrich The Chalk Cliffs

10. Literature
Lyrical Ballads Coleridge &
Wordsworth
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
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11. Visual Arts
Caspar David Friedrich TheWanderer
above a Sea of Fog Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare
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12. Architecture
Notre Dame Salisbury Cathedral (John Constable)
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13. Music
Romantic Playlist
 Mendelssohn
 Brahms
 Tchaikovsky
 Schubert
 Chopin
 Grieg
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14. Gothic Features
 Mood through the weather
 Exaggerated emotions
 Helpless female characters
 Elements of the supernatural
 Curse/forbidden secret or truth
 Sinister settings – castles, dungeons, secret
passages, winding stairs, haunted buildings,
graveyards
Understanding Performance Week 5
National Archives, UK, Image of a ghost, (1899)

15. Neo-Classicism Vs. Romanticism
Neo-classicism
 Reason
 Order
 Balance
 Objectivity
 Industrial
 Formal
 Society
 Structure
 Symmetry
Romanticism
 Emotion
 Spontaneity
 Individual
 Subjectivity
 Nature
 Informal
 Untamed
 Imagination
 Supernatural
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16. So how do these
ideas inform
performance,
theatre and dance?
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17.  During this period there were two main types of plays: Romantic plays and
Melodramas
 Romantic writers who wrote in the Romantic style challenged all current
artistic conventions, claiming that if a playwright was a ‘real genius’, they
would not require any of the Neo-classical period's rules
 Romantic theatre was known for its ability to evoke a feeling, an atmosphere,
and a mood often at the expense of believable plots or characters. Special
effects, therefore, focused on the supernatural and the mysterious – visual
over verbal, sensational rather than intellectual
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Robbie Jack - Corbis / Contributor / Getty Images
Romantic Theatre

18. Melodrama Theatre
 Melodrama arose from the popularization of Romanticism and the Gothic
 It emphasised action and spectacular stage effects and was always
accompanied by music and song, which helped establish a tense mood for the
play
 These dramas were designed to pull on the heartstrings of the audience by
pitting good characters against bad characters, heroes against villains
 The main characters in melodrama were either totally good in nature or totally
evil, making it very clear which of the two the audience was to applaud
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19. Key Plays
 Faust Part I & II
 1808- 1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 The Dog of Montarges
 1814 René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt
 The Robbers
 1781 Friedrich Schiller
 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
 1831Victor Hugo
 1861 1st theatrical adaptation
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20. Key stylistic features
 Abandonment of formalized rules
 Individualistic and passionate expressions
 Protagonists are portrayed as rebellious
 Acting was emotional and dramatic
 Promoted individuality and the importance of imagination
 Awe of Nature
 Unrealistic plots yet , be as realistic as possible
 No subject matter inappropriate for the stage
Understanding Performance Week 5
The Exorcist ,The Regent Theatre (1973)

21. Romantic Ballet (early 19th Century)
 In ballet there was a focus on the mystical and
irrational, the tales of E.T.A Hoffman and the
music.
 ‘Themes dealing with supernatural, usually
feminine, creatures: sylphides, water nymph, fire
spirits, peris, demons and the like.The allure that
such creatures exercised over mortals…- in the
Romantic ballet, a metaphor for the artist’s
yearning for the unattainable.’
(Au, 2012:45)
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22. Romantic Ballet (early 19th Century)
 These early works explored some of the
Romantic literature, through dance, such as
Coralli’s adaptation of Faust
 The innovative and experimental boulevard
theatre were also experimenting with new
effects, using gas lighting (instead of oil) to create
illusions and supernatural, mysterious
atmospheres on stage – in particular the illusion
of moonlight.
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23. Key Ballets
 Le Diable Boiteux (The Devil UponTwo
Sticks)
 1836 Jean Coralli
 Music: Casimir Gide
 La Sylphide
 1932 FilippoTaglioni (then later
Bournonville)
 Music: Scneitzhoeffer
 Giselle
 1840 Jean Coralli & Jules Perrot
 Music: Adolphe Adam
 Coppelia
 1970 Arthur Saint-Leon
 Music: Leo Delibes
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24. Key stylistic features
 The main features of Romantic ballet:
 Illusion of weightlessness – pointe, long tutus - floating
 Supernatural, spiritual themes
 Peasant characters rather than nobility
 Use of folk/national dances from ‘foreign’ cultures
 Special effects – gas lighting
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25. Bibliography
 Dance specific resources: Cohen, S. J. (1992) ‘ Section three: the invasion of the air: the
Romantic era’ in Dance as a theatre art. 2nd edn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, pp.
65-71.
 Prince, N, and Jeanie, J. (2005) ‘OurTheatre Heritage’ in ExploringTheatre. NewYork:
Glencoe, pp. 206-207.
 Banes, S. (1998) ‘The Romantic ballet: La Sylphide, Giselle, Coppelia’, in Dancing women:
female bodies on stage. London: Routledge, pp. 12-41.
 Theatre/Acting specific resources: Dumas,A. (no date) Camille (la Dame Aux Camilias).
EBSCOhost [Online].
 Pellissier, G. (1897) ‘Romanticism in the theatre’, in The literary movement in France during the
NineteenthCentury.Theatre Database [Online].
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Understanding Performance