The Industrial Revolution, Romanticism, and Realism Notes Excerpts from Europe and the Making of Modernity (Winks,

Robin W. and Joan Neuberger. 2005. Europe And The Making of Modernity: 1815- 1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) Romanticism Romanticism was a broad cultural movement, which rejected the Enlight-enments emphasis on reason and classical forms derived from ancient Greece and Rome, while embracing its idealization of individual self-determination. Romantic writers, musicians, artists, and other public figures sought to replace what they saw as an overly rational and mechanistic view of human nature with the expression of individual imagination, faith, and feeling rooted in the natural world [] Romantic writers and artists protested against the oversimplification of the Enlighten-ment ideal of a thinking, objective, logical individual and insisted on the intri-cacy and complexity of human nature, recognizing the irrational and emo-tional elements of human nature []Most Romantics were disturbed by the destruction of nature that had already occurred as a result of early industrialization, especially in England. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 41) [Caspar David] Friedrich believed that only isolation from modern life noisy, congested, commercial cities- allowed true feelings and self-expression, so his paintings often convey a disquieting sense of aloneness. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 53) Many Romantic painters sought authenticity in an ideal-ized premodern society, which they perceived to exist still in rural, peasant culture. The idea that the peasant and the medieval were unspoiled by modernity was very widespread in Europe. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 55) In both [Romanticism and Melodrama], artists choose to portray a more complex response to the new problems of the postrevolutionary, industrial urban world. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 62)

Realism/ Social Criticism Realists writers rejected the dreamy, otherworldliness of Romanticism and choose the role of social critic. The realists were thoroughly immersed in the world of their time. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 245) Charles Dickenss many novels exposed the cruelty and suffering experi-enced by the poor, especially poor children, in mid-nineteenth century En-gland. He attacked the workhouse, the boarding school, the factory, and the shop with wild plots and colorful, unforgettable characters reflecting his minute observations of almost every corner of the life of his day. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 246) The collective function of the realist novel was to catalogue, examine and analyze every detail of modern social life. (Winks and Neuberger 2005, 249). Works Referenced Winks, Robin W. and Joan Neuberger. 2005. Europe And The Making of Modernity: 1815- 1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press.