The social context of Romanticism is part of a series of changes in the structure on which the society of the time was based. In this turbulent environment, several different ideologies clash.
These ideologies were the absolutist, which is reluctant to disappear; the Enlightenment, supported by the ideas of the French Revolution; and from the 19th century, Romanticism, with a reaction to the previous two.
Romanticism was an artistic and thought current that emerged in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
While it exalts individualism and freedom, it also confronts enlightened rationalist ideas, since it contains very spiritual and emotional elements.
Background
The Europe from which Romanticism emerged was in a very turbulent period in its history.
The old regime of the absolutist monarchies was being fought by the ideas of the French Revolution, which Napoleon was in charge of expanding throughout the continent.
On the other hand, among intellectuals, conservative ideas linked to the Church and kings by divine mandate confront the Enlightenment.
In the Enlightenment, reason is the new sign of identity. Thus, the rational comes to replace the religious.
Among these ideas there is a novel one, with some coincidences with both and with many differences: Romanticism.
This joins the rejection of the old religion as the axis of society, but it also rejects reason and the return to neoclassicism of the Greeks and Romans.
Romanticism and its social context
Although it has usually been studied in its artistic field, society also receives influences from this new movement.
In this way, the individuality it advocates joins the emergence of new subjective concepts that are going to change even the geography of Europe.
Nationalist ideas based on the idea of the “spirit of the people” are beginning to develop, especially in central Europe.
This nationalism drinks from almost mythological sources, from a glorious past. For example, Germany is unified into a single state, sometimes appealing to Norse mythology.
A great example of this is found in the works of Richard Wagner, with his references to the Nibelungs or gods of the north.
Italy is also unified, with constant appeals to what was the Roman Empire. The revolutions and movement of 1848 are not only based on the liberal ideas of the French Revolution, but also on those romantic traits.
In addition, there is a sense of the tragic that did not exist previously. Death is not only seen from a Christian point of view, but it is endowed with a dark and attractive halo that it previously lacked. Poets like Lord Byron or writers like Poe prove it.
Romanticism in Latin America
The romantic movement reaches Latin America with some features of its own due to the social context.
Romanticism appeared in Latin America in the mid-nineteenth century, when the continent was in the midst of the struggle for independence.
This is a period of the emergence of caudillos, wars and the coming to power of the Creoles. That is why it is not surprising that part of that Romanticism was impregnated with the search for freedom, picking up influences from the liberal ideas of the time.
References
- Complutense University of Madrid. The Romantic movement: Historical-Social Framework. Recovered from ucm.es
- Sevilla University. Political Romanticism. Recovered from institutional.us.es
- Cross Ref. Romanticism. Retrieved from crossref-it.info
- Heath, Shannon. The Culture of Rebellion in the Romantic Era. Retrieved from web.utk.edu
- Liceale Polo. The Romantic Age: Historical Background. Obtained from pololiceale.it