3 ms·

The First Romantics

• zozbot234 4y ago
  I'm not sure what to make of this article. It actually seems very hard to draw a clear-cut boundary between the Romantics and the earlier sentimentalism of 18th-c. English literature. And that sentimentalism in turn seems to be heavily influenced by attitudes towards wonder, individuality, metaphor etc. that had developed already in earlier Baroque literature (which was a continental European movement but nonetheless a huge influence e.g. on John Donne, etc. My relevant point is that the early-modern period was truly "modern" in spite of being strictly pre-Enlightenment, but also surprisingly broad and varied). So this whole notion of "the first Romantics" as being somehow revolutionary just seems to be missing the forest for the trees.
  • gotorazor 4y ago
    Movements and attitudes are not like concepts and inventions. I think you hit upon the problem of "periodization". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodization