Editing Romanticism (section)

===Context and place in history===
The more precise characterization and specific definition of Romanticism has been the subject of debate in the fields of [[intellectual history]] and [[literary history]] throughout the 20th century, without any great measure of consensus emerging. That it was part of the [[Counter-Enlightenment]], a reaction against the [[Age of Enlightenment]], is generally accepted in current scholarship. Its relationship to the [[French Revolution]], which began in 1789 in the very early stages of the period, is clearly important, but highly variable depending on geography and individual reactions. Most Romantics can be said to be broadly progressive in their views, but a considerable number always had, or developed, a wide range of conservative views,<ref>Day, 1–3; the arch-conservative and Romantic is [[Joseph de Maistre]], but many Romantics swung from youthful radicalism to conservative views in middle age, for example Wordsworth. [[Samuel Palmer]]'s only published text was a short piece opposing the [[Repeal of the corn laws]].</ref> and nationalism was in many countries strongly associated with Romanticism, as discussed in detail below.

In philosophy and the history of ideas, Romanticism was seen by Isaiah Berlin as disrupting for over a century the classic Western traditions of rationality and the idea of moral absolutes and agreed values, leading "to something like the melting away of the very notion of objective truth",<ref>Berlin, 57</ref> and hence not only to nationalism, but also [[fascism]] and [[totalitarianism]], with a gradual recovery coming only after World War II.<ref>Several of Berlin's pieces dealing with this theme are collected in the work referenced. See in particular: Berlin, 34–47, 57–59, 183–206, 207–37.</ref> For the Romantics, Berlin says, <blockquote>in the realm of ethics, politics, aesthetics it was the authenticity and sincerity of the pursuit of inner goals that mattered; this applied equally to individuals and groups—states, nations, movements. This is most evident in the aesthetics of romanticism, where the notion of eternal models, a Platonic vision of ideal beauty, which the artist seeks to convey, however imperfectly, on canvas or in sound, is replaced by a passionate belief in spiritual freedom, individual creativity. The painter, the poet, the composer do not hold up a mirror to nature, however ideal, but invent; they do not imitate (the doctrine of mimesis), but create not merely the means but the goals that they pursue; these goals represent the self-expression of the artist's own unique, inner vision, to set aside which in response to the demands of some "external" voice—church, state, public opinion, family friends, arbiters of taste—is an act of betrayal of what alone justifies their existence for those who are in any sense creative.<ref>Berlin, 57–58</ref><!-- yes, 2 semi-colons & about 15 commas in the quote --></blockquote>
[[File:John William Waterhouse - The Lady of Shalott - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|[[John William Waterhouse]], ''[[The Lady of Shalott (painting)|The Lady of Shalott]]'', 1888, after a poem by [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]]]

[[Arthur Lovejoy]] attempted to demonstrate the difficulty of defining Romanticism in his seminal article "On the Discrimination of Romanticisms" in his ''Essays in the [[History of ideas|History of Ideas]]'' (1948); some scholars see Romanticism as essentially continuous with the present, some like [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]] see in it the inaugural moment of [[modernity]],<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2004/february/bkpub1.asp| title = Linda Simon ''The Sleep of Reason'' by Robert Hughes| date = 12 July 2021}}</ref> while writers of the 19th Century such as [[François-René de Chateaubriand|Chateaubriand]], [[Novalis]] and Samuel Taylor Coleridge saw it as the beginning of a tradition of resistance to [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] rationalism—a "Counter-Enlightenment"—<ref>''[[Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder]]'', Pimlico, 2000 {{ISBN|0-7126-6492-0}} was one of [[Isaiah Berlin]]'s many publications on the Enlightenment and its enemies that did much to popularise the concept of a Counter-Enlightenment movement that he characterised as [[Relativism|relativist]], [[Rationalism|anti-rationalist]], [[Vitalism|vitalist]] and organic,</ref><ref>[[Darrin McMahon|Darrin M. McMahon]], "The Counter-Enlightenment and the Low-Life of Literature in Pre-Revolutionary France" ''Past and Present'' No. 159 (May 1998:77–112) p. 79 note 7.</ref> to be associated most closely with [[German Romanticism]]. Another early definition comes from [[Charles Baudelaire]]: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Salon_de_1846_%28Curiosit%C3%A9s_esth%C3%A9tiques%29#II._.E2.80.94_Qu.E2.80.99est-ce_que_le_romantisme.3F |title=Baudelaire's speech at the "Salon des curiosités Estethiques |language=fr |publisher=Fr.wikisource.org |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref>

The end of the Romantic era is marked in some areas by a new style of [[Realism (arts)|Realism]], which affected literature, especially the novel and drama, painting, and even music, through [[Verismo]] opera. This movement was led by France, with [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]] and [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]] in literature and [[Gustave Courbet|Courbet]] in painting; [[Stendhal]] and [[Francisco Goya|Goya]] were important precursors of Realism in their respective media. However, Romantic styles, now often representing the established and safe style against which Realists rebelled, continued to flourish in many fields for the rest of the century and beyond. In music such works from after about 1850 are referred to by some writers as "Late Romantic" and by others as "Neoromantic" or "Postromantic", but other fields do not usually use these terms; in English literature and painting the convenient term "Victorian" avoids having to characterise the period further.

In northern Europe, the Early Romantic visionary optimism and belief that the world was in the process of great change and improvement had largely vanished, and some art became more conventionally political and polemical as its creators engaged polemically with the world as it was. Elsewhere, including in very different ways the United States and Russia, feelings that great change was underway or just about to come were still possible. Displays of intense emotion in art remained prominent, as did the exotic and historical settings pioneered by the Romantics, but experimentation with form and technique was generally reduced, often replaced with meticulous technique, as in the poems of Tennyson or many paintings. If not realist, late 19th-century art was often extremely detailed, and pride was taken in adding authentic details in a way that earlier Romantics did not trouble with. Many Romantic ideas about the nature and purpose of art, above all the pre-eminent importance of originality, remained important for later generations, and often underlie modern views, despite opposition from theorists. {{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}