Discover the main GENRES of ROMANTICISM

Romanticism was an artistic and cultural movement that took place late eighteenth and early nineteenth and that he rebelled against the reasoning and the most scientific vision of the world postulated by the Enlightenment to put the emotions and the subjective world of the artist and poet first. In this lesson from a TEACHER we want to talk about main genres of Romanticism in literature since it was a current that greatly innovated in artistic creation and that investigated other ways of making literature. Poetry and drama were the two genres par excellence of the romantic movement, however, there were also authors who cultivated prose and who have to be recognized.

Breaking with the neoclassical tradition followed during the Enlightenment, Romanticism was born as a movement that puts the creator, the poet, the person and that less tangible part of the human being: emotions, passion, pain, love, feelings, etc. Therefore, we go from a rational and objective conception of literature to now enter a type of current that opts to show the most internal and profound of artistic creation and of the human being.

In order to accommodate this new literary trend, some genres began to be cultivated that were the main ones during this literary movement. We are faced with a movement, not only artistic, but ideological and that has some very detailed features such as the exaltation of feelings, the subjective vision of the world, the presence of magical aspects or fanciful in the narratives, the defense of both personal and national individuality, etc.

In order to reflect this new vision of the world, they appeared genres of Romanticism that were the most used among the poets of this movement. These were the following:

• Poetry: was one of the most prominent genres within the romantic movement because it allowed the poet the maximum expression of his emotions and feelings with a more refined use of language that was able to convey what the poet wanted tell.
• Romantic drama or drama: another of the main genres of Romanticism was theater or drama and one of the great representatives worldwide was Shakespeare who wrote, among many other works, the well-known love story of Romeo and Juliet.
• Prose: This is the genre that was least cultivated during Romanticism but that also had some authors who used this channel to communicate their ideas and their vision of the world.

To better understand which were the most important genres of Romanticism, below we will analyze each of them concisely and indicate the characteristics and authors most important.

As we have already commented, one of the genres of Romanticism most cultivated was poetry since it provided the poet with an ideal literary space to speak figuratively, to to exalt their feelings and to build images charged with magic, beauty, melancholy, etc. Gustavo Adolfo Becquer he is one of the most prominent poets in Spanish romantic literature.

Within romantic poetry we find that poets always moved in two trends concrete:

• Lyrical-sentimental poetry: is the most common poetry within this movement and dealt with the Romantic themes more common such as love, heartbreak, suffering, melancholy, jealousy, pain, etc. Exalted feelings that were typical of the romantic condition.
• Historical-legendary poetry: Romanticism was a movement that, also, bet on the freedom of the peoples, not only the individual and, for that, began to rescue legends and traditional and folk elements of each region to recover its essence authentic. This is how the romantic movement led to the emergence of nationalisms in the world. In this sense, poets cultivated this type of poetry in order to find the purest tradition and essence of their peoples.

Characteristics of romantic poetry

Romantic poetry used to contain a series of features that made it unique and very differentiating. They are as follows:

• Abundant use of rhetoric and symbolism
• Use of exclamation and question marks
• They opted for the mixture of several stanzas in the same poem like romance, silva, etc.
• The most recurrent themes were those of a sentimental scope and, above all, with a tragic or desperate vision of life. Impossible love, death, tragic destiny, etc., were the most common themes that were discussed in romantic poetry.
• Influence of exoticism or landscapes full of fantasy, magic or esotericism
• Short and long verses are combined and traditional stanzas such as romance are also used
• Exalted, passionate style and with the abundant presence of rhetorical devices that achieve great effect when reading the poem

Another of the most important genres of Romanticism was drama or theater. In fact, there were many romantic authors who opted for the theater to create great literary works. One of the most recognized internationally is Victor hugo with works of art such as "Les Miserables" but there are also other very prominent names such as Goethe, Zorrilla or the Duke of Rivas in Spain.

With the theater it was possible to unify the romantic passion and create stories full of tragedy and love that moved the audience and took them on a journey into the human soul.

Characteristics of the genres of romantic theater

To better understand this romantic genre, it is important that we know what the outstanding features of the works that were cultivated following this artistic trend. Here we discover them:

• Use of verse and prose in the same work
• Rupture with 3 classic units of the theater (of time, of action and of place)
• Mix of the tragic and the comic
• Popular elements are also mixed with satire and social criticism
• IImportance of nature: in romantic works, nature is one more element of the setting and of the story. The darkest actions of the human soul take place at night, violent natural phenomena appear that are a reflection of what happens in the plot, etc.
• Preference for medieval history and recovery of legends and culture of the time. Interest in the exoticism and the identity of the peoples.
• The characters of the romantic theater are usually rebels and they face against society
• A very common characteristic of romantic drama is the creation of a surprising intrigue and very well elaborated that keeps the viewer in suspense
• The objective is not to teach the public, as neoclassical theater did, but rather that what is sought is excite and inspire to the public.

And we finish this lesson on the genres of Romanticism to tell you about another of the genres that were cultivated during this time. Prose was also very popular with romantic authors and, above all, they were created from 4 different ways:

• Romantic historical novel: It is a type of novel that was written because of the interest that the authors had on the historical and legendary past of the peoples. The authentic essence of each culture was also sought to highlight its own individuality with respect to other peoples.
• Legends: As we have already discussed, the romantics were also interested in the most legendary and exalted part of a nation's history. The legends also have that touch of mystery, fantasy and exaltation of achievements and defeats that romantics liked so much.
• Novels of manners: it is the type of novel most cultivated among romantics. Here the customs and traditions of a society abounded to reflect that part of the group that is most typical and characteristic of the group.
• Essay and journalism: the essay was also one of the most prominent forms of romantic prose. In Spain we have Mariano José de Larra who created a great variety of texts and articles that are studied in classrooms.

Characteristics of romantic prose

To better understand what romantic prose was like, it is important that we learn to detect the most outstanding characteristics of this type of narrative. Here we discover them:

• Exaltation of the "I": normally these novels are written in the first person and vindicate the subjective vision of reality that the protagonist has. Therefore, they are works full of emotions and feelings.
• Feeling of freedom: the romantic author defended freedom above all else and, therefore, in novels we also see this trait since it is experimented with new forms and new narrative structures that move away from the form classical.
• Rise of nationalism: the interest in individuality was also reflected at the level of societies and, therefore, they began to look for the roots of nations to find their most authentic identity.
• Presence of nature: descriptions abound in the romance novel because nature acts as one more protagonist. The relationship between the protagonist and nature is complete.
• Escape from reality: Another characteristic of romantic prose is that the author's dissatisfaction makes him evade other realities and, therefore, they can contextualize their stories in a legendary past or in places exotic.